Vermont residents battled epic flooding on Monday after the remnants of Hurricane Irene set off the state’s worst flooding in nearly 40 years, washing out roads and knocking out power.
At least one person was killed after being swept into a swollen river in the mountainous, land-locked New England state, which rarely sees tropical storms.
Homes and businesses were flooded after 7 inches of rain inundated the state from Irene, which had been reduced to a tropical storm by the time it reached Vermont on Sunday. Floodwaters gushed through downtown Brattleboro, an artsy community of 12,000 along the Connecticut River.
On Monday, President Barack Obama signed Vermont’s emergency declaration, directing federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts, NBC News reported.
Irene left millions without power across much of the Eastern Seaboard, was blamed for at least 25 deaths and forced airlines to cancel more than 12,000 flights . Rivers and creeks turned into raging torrents tumbling with tree limbs and parts of buildings in northern New England and upstate New York.
The National Weather Service issued a series of flood warnings early Monday morning for rivers in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and Virginia.
Overnight every single road in Vermont — except interstate highways Routes 89 and 91 — was closed at one point due to flooding, Robert Stirewalt, a spokesman for the Vermont Emergency Management Agency said on Monday.
“Things are bad throughout the state and we are just starting the recovery process in the light of day,” he said. “It is too early to say what the damage will be as we assess it and we hope it won’t be more extensive than last night indicated.”
