— By Eric Francis

5/18/25

White River Junction, VT — A severe thunderstorm packing hail and wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour flooded streets in downtown White River Junction early Saturday evening and knocked out power in scattered locations on both sides of the Connecticut River, including much of downtown Lebanon, for several hours. The WRJ VA also reported that it’s had to relocate its emergency room as a result of flooding.

Beginning at 6 p.m. the fast moving storm rolled eastward along the Route 4 corridor leaving a string of damage reports—mostly of trees and wires down—between Taftsville, VT and Orange, NH over the course of approximately an hour.

An ominously dark sky brought pummeling wind gusts mixed with sheets of hail that were so thick at times it was difficult to see across lawns to the next residence or building and drivers had to turn on their headlights to get through intersections.

Tuckerbox owner Vural Oktay looks over the parking lot behind his restaurant and the main downtown block as large swaths of Currier Street and neighboring Gates Street went underwater. All photos © Eric Francis.

Several trees came crashing down, with some temporarily blocking sections of major roads, including Route 4 in Quechee and Route 14 near Hartford Village, for several minutes.

Trees also came down on three houses along Butternut Lane just off Sykes Mountain Avenue above downtown White River Junction. Homeowner Tucker Adams recalled that during the storm’s peak, “It was crazy.  It was really wild really fast. You couldn’t see anything outside.”

“I think it was a microburst,” Tucker said, “I was actually across the street at a neighbor’s house eating dinner and it was like a whiteout with strong winds and hail.  Once everything kind of settled down you could see trees were on the house and our neighbors’ houses.”

Adams has lived in the neighborhood for over two years but he noted, “I am from Missouri so I feel like I’m in Missouri right now.”

Hartford Fire Captain Shawn Hannux joined members of the Department of Public Works as they hunted for the drain next to Rio Blanco Salon on Currier Street.

Firefighters said most of the water that made its way into the downtown, submerging sections of several streets and low-lying areas such as underpasses in the process, appeared to have come down Fairview Terrace and a parallel section of Route 5 and 4 that passes by the Bugbee Senior Center.  That pattern echoes previous flash flooding incidents downtown that occurred in 2012, exactly one year to the day after Tropical Storm Irene, and again in July of 2023.

A roughly ten-foot by ten-foot section of construction fencing surrounding the former 25,000 Gifts building washed clear down the hill to North Main Street, where it came to rest on a lawn across the street from the Tip Top Building.

A few downtown businesses, including the Tuckerbox restaurant—which suffered a devastating basement flood a couple of years ago when a pipe burst—did get small amounts of water in their basements, but this time there was minimal disruption: Patrons continued to dine even as fire engines and police cruisers raced past to various emergencies around the downtown.

A photo story follows:

A car slices through waves of icy slush in front of Hartford’s Town Hall during the height of Saturday evening’s severe storm as sheets of hail, at times described as “grape sized,” blew through the region.

The Maple Street railroad underpass quickly filled with water and stranding two cars, prompting Hartford police officers and an off-duty fire captain to come help.

Hartford Police officers Christian Hernandez and Dan Bennett push a car out of the standing water on Maple Street.