The city of Montpelier is teetering on the verge of disaster, as police warn that torrential downpours have increased the risk of reservoir water spilling into the district’s already dangerously flooded area.
On Monday, officials in the drenched capital of Vermont reported that the adjacent Wrightsville Dam had a storage capacity of six feet; by Tuesday at noon, this capacity had dropped to one foot.
Water cascaded through the picturesque downtown district of Montpelier, submerging residences and vehicles in its aftermath, and rising water levels now threaten to exacerbate the situation.
This week, Vermont was designated by the National Weather Service as the state with the ‘highest risk’ for tumultuous precipitation, which included significant portions of New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
Roads Cut Off and Service Centers Damaged
More than 110 people have been rescued by emergency services in the capital, but many more remain stranded due to the destruction of 78 roads and the flooding of police, ambulance, and fire headquarters.
USA, MONTPELIER – On Tuesday, July 11, a dam upstream from the state capital of Vermont was holding at maximum capacity after “catastrophic” flooding shut down roads leading out of Montpelier and confined people in their residences.
The Wrightsville Dam, which creates a reservoir four miles (6.4 kilometers) north of Montpelier, was nearing the point where a spillway would be required to discharge water into the North Branch of the Winooski River, according to city officials.
That would exacerbate what the National Weather Service has termed “catastrophic” flooding in the picturesque downtown district of Montpelier, where people navigated the submerged streets in canoes and floodwaters reached the windows of businesses and the roofs of vehicles.
Near the Vermont statehouse, the North Branch converges with a second, broader branch of the Winooski.
Read also: Kenya Vehicle Crash: 51 Dead, 31 Injured After Truck Rammed Into Several Vehicles
Source: Mail Online, Rappler
