Rescue Efforts Intensify as Storms Overwhelm Vermont’s Capital, Northeast Prepares for Further Rain.
As rescue workers in Vermont prepared for further rain and flooding from a storm that left a trail of destruction and resulted in at least one death across the Northeast, President Biden authorised Vermont’s disaster declaration early on Tuesday. Biden issued the declaration when he was in Vilnius, Lithuania, for a NATO summit of European and North American leaders. It directs the federal government to support municipal and state efforts in flood-affected areas.
In order to allow the Winooski River to recede, city officials in Montpelier, the state capital, issued an emergency health order late Monday night that shuttered downtown until at least midday Tuesday. Early on Monday night, city officials warned residents to avoid the area because of toxic floodwaters. At a press conference on Monday, Vermont Governor Phil Scott announced the state of emergency earlier in the day due to the possibility of rainfall amounts in some areas exceeding those seen during Hurricane Irene in 2011.
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“The good news is as a result of Irene, we were able to mitigate some of the infrastructure, so we hopefully won’t repeat in those areas that were affected before,” he said. “We’ve been able to upgrade and armor some of those areas so that we don’t have a repeat.” Authorities in Vermont sent out teams from other states as well as those from North Carolina and Massachusetts since they anticipated they would not have enough resources to handle the storm within at least 48 hours. According to Vermont’s Urban Search and Rescue Programme Coordinator Mike Cannon, mutual aid has also been provided by Michigan and Connecticut.
The village of Okemo, in southern Vermont, sustained catastrophic devastation, according to Brendan McNamara, town manager of Ludlow, Vermont, who also said that the rivers started spilling over their banks early on Monday morning.
“The onion isn’t even peeled back at all right now,” he added of the extent of the harm that has been done to Ludlow. I mean, Main Street is where we have access, and it is not excellent, so I’m walking up and down it. Rescue personnel attempted to get access to remote neighbourhoods in Vermont towns like Londonderry and Weston in order to carry out ongoing welfare checks, according to Cannon.
The governor of New York declares emergencies in many counties