Extreme Flooding Hits Southern Vermont and Southern New Hampshire

This weekend was a wet one for many of us. It poured here in the Upper Valley on Saturday night--probably some of the heaviest sustained rains I'd seen in a while.

But for many folks in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire the storm was much worse. I did not realize the gravity of the situation until I watched the late night news on Saturday and heard that rain amounts were between 6-10 inches in some places.

Today's Rutland Herald and the Keene Sentinel chronical the extensive damage. Some areas in NH are under a state of emergency--the Lakes Region saw a lot of damage and flooding as well (the Loudon Speedway is under water). :blink:

There are some AZer's in this area and we hope that you and your neighbors are OK. Please don't be shy in asking us for help...now is the time to help out fellow New Englander's in need.

We had 10-12" at my house near Poughkeepsie, NY. Good thing my wife and I were diligent about watering all summer...most of the rain soaked in and didn't run off.

No damage or erosion at my house, but the river through my property was raging...would have made for a fun and fast (and scary) canoe or kayak trip downstream.

JimG. said:

but the river through my property was raging...

Click to expand...

through your property? That must be some property.....


dig a pond a redirect some of the river....let's play some hockey!

I stayed in bed all saturday morning....but I was enticed to do so....

Brettski said:

through your property? That must be some property.....

Click to expand...

It's a trout stream, nothing like the Hudson or anything like that.

ya all the roads were washed out on us we had a river going down our street about 3 feet wide by 3 feet deep

The problem with running small streams/creeks in a canoe/kayak/raft is the danger of strainers (fallen trees)they are proven killers, and are usually found in abundance after a flood.

I read about a kayaker feared dead after running into a strainer in New Hampshire yesterday.

The Esophus was running at 12.75FT on saturday night, normal flow is about 4.6FT. I wonder if the rebuilt bridge in Phonecia sustained new damage. The state had just repaired and reopened the bridge last month, what timming :x

loafer89 said:

The problem with running small streams/creeks in a canoe/kayak/raft is the danger of strainers (fallen trees)they are proven killers, and are usually found in abundance after a flood.

I read about a kayaker feared dead after running into a strainer in New Hampshire yesterday.

The Esophus was running at 12.75FT on saturday night, normal flow is about 4.6FT. I wonder if the rebuilt bridge in Phonecia sustained new damage. The state had just repaired and reopened the bridge last month, what timming :x

Click to expand...

Oh Lord no, you wouldn't have caught me on that stream in a canoe. I once watched a buddy try to kayak on the Schoharie creek in Hunter during a big winter rain storm; we almost lost him.

I was just looking at video of a guy paddling Bulls Bridge on the Housatonic (class V) in the flooding on sunday. He was on the river alone I might add :blink: :smash:

I have run the Housatonic above flood stage, and it's on the dangerous side. I think that a few paddlers will get killed in the next few days in the rush to run rivers/creeks with dangerously high water

loafer89 said:

I was just looking at video of a guy paddling Bulls Bridge on the Housatonic (class V) in the flooding on sunday. He was on the river alone I might add :blink: :smash:

I have run the Housatonic above flood stage, and it's on the dangerous side. I think that a few paddlers will get killed in the next few days in the rush to run rivers/creeks with dangerously high water

Click to expand...

Ahhh the eternal search for the adrenaline "high". What some of us will do for fun right?

M

I have kayaked a total of 3 times in my life. The last was on the Upper Casselman in Pennsylvania. I had run it in a Shredder (two man raft) at reasonably high water and it was fine. Mind you, I feel much more comfortable in a raft where the balance points are the legs/knees than in a canoe or kayak where its the ass/hips. A friend of my ex's saw me ski, knew I had been out a couple times in a kayak and said because I had such great balance on skis, kayaking high water shouldn't be a problem. The day we went down the Casselmen was the highest it had ran in 20 years. I lasted about 100 yards before a five foot wave rolled me over, where I somehow managed to exit the boat before I was swept down steam for half a mile until I impaled myself on a tree that was normally ten feet inland from the shore. Mind you I didn't even know how to roll and had never wet exited once, was just told how to do it.

I doubt I'll ever get in kayak again after that day. I'm suprised I'm still alive.

I thought I'd really enjoy the adrenaline rush that kayaking can provide because of how much I enjoy skiing hairy terrain. The major difference is that when your on skis, you can actually stop and contemplate your next move. You don't have that luxory in a kayak on whitewater. Sure you can eddy out, get out of the boat, walk down stream and check out the terrain, but its so different. Once you're in the thick of it, there's no stopping to collect yourself and refocus, your sucked right in until the rapid is over.

For that reason, I find whitewater kayakers ten times as 'ballsy' as extreme skiers.

snowmaker4191 said:

ya all the roads were washed out on us we had a river going down our street about 3 feet wide by 3 feet deep

Click to expand...

Where 'bouts? I've got a few friends that live in downtown Keene, one right next to a small river (he actually lives in a former pumphouse on the river!), hope they're all right. I really feel for the folks in areas like Alstead, Marlow, and Stoddard. There aren't many roads to get around on up there to begin with. We were up there this spring doing road work. Looks like we may be going back...

Down in Athol we got about 8-9" in a real short time span. Went for a walk with the dog on Sunday, and the local rivers were raging. Had some flood damage 20 miles west of us in Greenfield. No damage here though.

As much as I like kayaking, I do not find myself to be more/less agressive on the slopes. I actually took my first swim in 10 years of kayaking last weekend on the Esophus. I had just finished a class III rapid and I was playing in an eddyline when my kayak flipped unexpectedly. Being upside down in 60F water for 20-30 seconds was not all that much fun.

My home river (Housatonic) has been bone dry all year and I have not had the chance to be on it. Hopefully the water will hold for a trip next weekend. I have been forced to try new places this year in order to kayak:

Magalloway - Maine, Lower section class I
Adroscoggin River - New Hampshire class II
Deerfield - Massachusets class II-III
Farmington - Connecticut class II-III
Esophus Creek - New York class II-III

I own three inflatable kayaks, so I do not need to have an eskimo roll, but I agree that you have to chooose your path in advance and the challenging parts of a river deserve alot of planned thinking.

The hard part for me this year was backing away from the upper part of the Magalloway (class III -IV) as I was paddling alone and I could not scout the river from above. I NEVER backed away from a ski slope, inside I know I made the right decision, but it still makes me feel bad.

I took these on Wednesday. I did not have a camera on Tuesday when the area was underwater. The water receded about 4 feet in a day and now the CT river is in its banks in some areas. I will have to check it on Monday when I go back into Hartford. I did not jog on the trail as some parts are still under water.

You can see the debris. The water was over this 4 foot railing:


The area where the water was land last week:


The jogging path:


The I84 bridge:

I feel like a kid in a candy store with the promise of clearing weather tomorrow, and all of the local rivers high enough to paddle.

Cant decide weather to paddle the Housatonic, Farmington or the Salmon. It's almost like a deep powder morning :beer:

JimG. said:

Brettski said:

through your property? That must be some property.....

Click to expand...

It's a trout stream, nothing like the Hudson or anything like that.

Click to expand...

Any Special Regulations..JimG?, flyfishing Only..etc..;-)
If there's enough water you should try and plant several dozen or so browns...in, along with some strainer logs, boulders... :lol: :lol: (and Charge $$$ access fees)..:lol: Don't fish much these days, but clear troutstreams = quality groundwater and environment..

NH & VT are mountains with "other land" thrown in between....you have a LOT of mountaintop/side tribs headed in the same directions..

bigbog said:

Any Special Regulations..JimG?, flyfishing Only..etc..;-)
If there's enough water you should try and plant several dozen or so browns...in, along with some strainer logs, boulders... :lol: :lol: (and Charge $$$ access fees)..:lol: Don't fish much these days, but clear troutstreams = quality groundwater and environment..

Click to expand...

My river is Fishkill Creek...it's a class 1 NY trout stream and as such is stocked every spring. Fairly easy to catch 10-12" browns with the occasional holdover up to 16". It's bed has good topo and plenty of hiding places; water is crystal clear (unless it's been raining for 7+ days!) and it never runs dry...always at least hip deep. Never freezes either.

Trout regs are standard NYS, the only unusual reg is for sturgeon of all things. Fishkill Creek runs into the Hudson. Shad occasionally run up it and I've heard that sturgeon have been spotted chasing them.
As an estuary of the Hudson, you can't fish for the sturgeon and if you hook one you must release it.

The ONLY time that I have ever seen trout in a river while kayaking was this past July on the Farmington River - West Branch. The trout were brown with small black spots???? and about 10-12" long. I am not a fisherman, so I don't know what kind of trout those are, but they where everywhere the fisherman where not. Smart fish :lol:

loafer89 said:

The ONLY time that I have ever seen trout in a river while kayaking was this past July on the Farmington River - West Branch. The trout were brown with small black spots???? and about 10-12" long. I am not a fisherman, so I don't know what kind of trout those are, but they where everywhere the fisherman where not. Smart fish :lol:

Click to expand...

Those are Brown trout; native to Europe, they were transplanted to American streams and in many cases took over the fishery. More aggressive in nature than Brook trout which are the species native to the eastern part of North America.

I got a call at 6:00am this morning from my uncle telling me his basement was flooded. I have a utility pump that I use to drain the pool water from the cover. I packed that up as it was in the pool, grabbed some garden hoses and an extension cord and left my home.

As I was driving I ran into a problem, any street that has the small brook running under it was closed due to the flooding. A normal 5 minute trip took me 30 minutes to find roads that were dry. The highway (I91) was shut down in the area due to the stream flooding that out also.

I did arrive and hooked up the pump and it was working. Forunately there is a sink in the basement & they are on city sewage. They have some sort of drain valve in the basement. I took a pipe wrench and opened it only to find the water was equal there (nothing coming out & nothing draining).

My uncle wanted a higher power pump, so I went out to look for one. They are completely sold out everywhere!

I returned to the house after 3 hours and the water was down about 2 inches.

At the end of his street it was blocked off as about 4 homes were under about 4 feet of water.

What a mess!

I did not realize I had my camera in my car. I took a few pictures.


This is one of the roads I needed to go down. The water was about 3 feet deep in one area according to the police officer.

I could not go down this road either, the stream flooded it too:

The speed limit sign. These streets never flood:

The dam which normally has a trickle of water going over it: