Flooding & Detours

Vermont got hit hard with several freaky rain storms just before the weekend.   5 inches of rain fell in a very short time and caused intense flooding.

Swiftwater rescue teams from Colchester & Stowe were called to rescue residents whose homes had flooded.

Roads and bridges washed out all across the middle and northeastern Vermont.  The Winooski River in Montpelier created massive property, home and business damage.   No one could get to work in that town on Friday due to road damage and flooding.  The local Burger King was totally destroyed.
A few huge Sinkholes have shown up in Montpelier that have swallowed a whole lotta cars.
Several towns are now on mudslide alert.

Every dump truck and driver in the state has been working 24/7 since the storm erupted.  Every gravel pit in the state is filling dump trucks up with rocks and sending them to fill in the massive holes in the roads.

Trying to get anywhere in the Northeast Kingdom is a challenge now because of hundreds of detours around destroyed roads and bridges.

My very vocal GPS had a massive meltdown as I tried to get to my destinations.

I drove up a rural road that had washed away and then had been quickly repaired.

The raging river was then washing the new road away as I was driving ON it.

The river was washing the gravel from under the road.

Only 4 vehicles passed over it before the road was closed yet again.

Small streams turned into raging rivers.

And those raging rivers cut across farmland and fields trying to find an exit.

Roads that had been rebuilt and retarred last fall because of flooding, were again destroyed in this latest event.

This road was one big sinkhole.

What I did not know was that about 100 feet in front of me the road dipped and dissapeared.  Again the stream down at the end of the road was continuing to eat the road away.

Because this road was the only way to detour around a washed out bridge, it had to be used.      Until it dissapeared.

Road triage at its best.

Because of all the creative detours, I got to see rural roads in towns I had never been to.

Took me 5 hours to do a 90 minute trip.

Saw many happy cows roaming the hillsides and chickens running the roads.

I took a photo of this crumbling hillside farm with a magnificent view...and NO flooding!

People who live UP on hills are smart.