Incidents Rival Irene in Scope

— by Eric Francis

White River Junction 7/10/23

As the White River climbed above flood stage on Monday evening, sending torrents of muddy brown water laced with tree trunks, steel barrels, and other scouring jetsam hurtling past the downtown, a lone 16-year-old dressed in nothing but a pair of blue swim trunks danced along the top of the railroad trestle behind the Windsor County Courthouse and then, with a graceful backflip, jumped in.

The scene shortly after 7:20 p.m. Monday horrified a witness on the nearby Lehman Bridge on Bridge Street, who immediately called Hartford Police, and set in motion a search on both sides of the nearby confluence with the Connecticut River.

The witness never saw the teen resurface but he did get the license number of a car that had been parked nearby.  Hartford officers were able to trace the plate to the car’s owner, who in turn called his son and confirmed that the teen had jumped in for a swim and then somehow made it safely back to shore.

Hartford Police officers check out the spot where a teen was seen jumping into the rain swollen White River late Monday afternoon. Photos by Eric Francis.

While that voluntary stunt was playing out in White River Junction, dozens of firefighters were spread out across Vermont and New Hampshire rescuing residents from homes and trailers in low lying areas who suddenly found themselves cut off by creeks and rivers that swelled over their banks.

Monday morning began with the Hartford Fire Department using a boat to help rescue a couple and their dog from a home in Bridgewater.

“The majority of the stuff we have been doing today has been assisting residents out of homes that were surrounded by water,” noted Hartford Fire Captain William Laliberty.

Quechee was especially hard hit in places, and the Quechee Covered Bridge was closed midday due to the level of the water, which rose to the edge of Old Quechee Road in spots.

Further upriver, many buildings in West Woodstock that had been heavily damaged in August of 2011 when Tropical Storm Irene hit the state found themselves inundated again, including the White Cottage Snack Bar and the Woodstock Farmers Market.

Later in the afternoon it was the turn of Reading, Proctorsville, and Ascutney to evacuate homeowners as walls crumbled and garages and other outbuildings were swept off their foundations.

Dozens of roads in dozens of towns were closed by flooding in both Vermont and New Hampshire and several volunteer fire departments found themselves running out of traffic cones to mark all the hazardous breaks in their roads; calls went out to state highway garages for any extras they had available.

The temporary bridge in Hartford Village that had been put up across the White River as part of a long-planned replacement effort was also swept away during the day Monday and sections of Route 14 further upriver in West Hartford and Sharon were also underwater.

Despite concerns midday about where things might be heading along the White River, downtown White River Junction actually fared well, with the White River cresting just barely over its flood stage of 18 feet - well short of the 28 feet it hit during Irene.

A wayward picnic table made its way through White River Junction as the river hit flood stage late Monday afternoon.

To the north, several Upper Valley towns did not do as well.

Vershire lost Bridge 11 on Route 113 by the old fire station mid-afternoon and numerous roads were closed by localized brook flooding in Norwich, West Fairlee, Thetford, Vershire, Corinth, Topsham, Bradford and Waits River, where another bridge was threatened by washouts early in the evening.

By late evening Vermont Emergency Management said that “Vermont’s swift water rescue teams have now performed more than 50 rescues, primarily in the towns of Londonderry, Weston, Bridgewater, Andover, Ludlow, and Middlesex. Teams have been shifted to areas of greatest concern of river flooding tonight.