Hurricane Irene

[Geoff]

No need to apologize. Sounds like that was 2 hands on the wheel at all times type of driving (or maybe "off roading" would be the more appropriate term)

I just wanted to get off that stretch of road as quickly as possible. According to the Vermont 1-lane dirt road etiquette I grew up with, the downhill car has the right of way. In those circumstances and it would have been ugly trying to back down the hill.

 

[legalskier]

I've stayed in that room. Looks like the entire section was ripped away from the rest of the building. You can see the stream behind it.

 

[deadheadskier]

I am not familiar with the route names, but this would be located if you went straight through (coming from Claremont and through Weathersfield/Ascutney?) the Downers 4 Corners? If so, I was thinking this road must have got hit bad. I go over there from time to time to pick up basic brewing supplies or good brews.

That would be the one. Now the best option is to head down to Springfield and work your way to 103 North. Probably an extra 25 minutes to the drive.

 

[UVSHTSTRM]

That would be the one. Now the best option is to head down to Springfield and work your way to 103 North. Probably an extra 25 minutes to the drive.

Another quick note in regards to this. I just took our Toyota (recall) to Howes Toyota here in Claremont not more than 2 hours ago and the lady behind me in line was talking to the customer service guy about how her friend owns a house (house in picture I am guessing) that sits on the edge of the 131 "crater". Funny how things pop up in multiples.

 

[drjeff]

Unfortunately, reports of new washouts and/or washouts of new repairs are starting to pop up across VT today as the remains of Leo pass through

 

[Glenn]

Good news: SoVT is opening roads and businesses: http://mountsnow.com/gm-blog-travel-info/

 

[steamboat1]

Someone posted this pick on Kzone of the repair of Rt.4 going toward Bridgewater from K.
Amazing how fast repairs are coming along.

 

[Glenn]

Someone posted this pick on Kzone of the repair of Rt.4 going toward Bridgewater from K.
Amazing how fast repairs are coming along.

Awesome! Glad to see they're moving along at a good pace. :flag:

 

[steamboat1]

New estimate lowers Vt. Irene recovery costs

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Vermont state officials have dramatically lowered their estimates of the costs of repairs to roads, bridges and culverts following Tropical Storm Irene.

State officials as recently as mid-October had thought the costs of those repairs could reach $620 million. But now they say the emergency nature of the repairs including reduced permitting and planning has cut those cost estimates by half to two-thirds.

Gov. Peter Shumlin and his aides said Monday the costs are expected to range from $175 million to $250 million.

Deputy Transportation Secretary Sue Minter says initial estimates were higher because they were made with standard construction practices in mind, rather than emergency ones.

State officials say the work has gone much faster than expected. They praise transportation workers and others for their efforts.

 

[UVSHTSTRM]

New estimate lowers Vt. Irene recovery costs

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Vermont state officials have dramatically lowered their estimates of the costs of repairs to roads, bridges and culverts following Tropical Storm Irene.

State officials as recently as mid-October had thought the costs of those repairs could reach $620 million. But now they say the emergency nature of the repairs including reduced permitting and planning has cut those cost estimates by half to two-thirds.

Gov. Peter Shumlin and his aides said Monday the costs are expected to range from $175 million to $250 million.

Deputy Transportation Secretary Sue Minter says initial estimates were higher because they were made with standard construction practices in mind, rather than emergency ones.

State officials say the work has gone much faster than expected. They praise transportation workers and others for their efforts.

So, your saying without red tape and useless government departments getting involved, things cost 2/3rds less? Don't let the Republicans in DC hear this.

 

[steamboat1]

I didn't say anything, you did.

 

[Glenn]

It is very interesting how the cost go down when the bureaucracy goes away.

 

[drjeff]

It is very interesting how the cost go down when the bureaucracy goes away.

The costs go down and the rate at which projects get completed gets much shorter! Hmm, maybe we're onto something here!

 

[deadheadskier]

http://articles.boston.com/2011-11-18/lifestyle/30415621_1_brewery-craft-beer-lovers-pub

 

[drjeff]

Bumping this thread, not because I am a new bot stalking AZ, but because I saw a post from a FB friend of mine today, that reminded everyone that today is the 11th Anniversary of when Irene rolled up and over the Northeast and brought the devasting floods to so many places and certainly affected numerous ski resorts!

May this hurricane season stay as quiet as it has been thus far!

 

[Abubob]

Bumping this thread, not because I am a new bot stalking AZ

That was my first thought.

 

[Abubob]

May this hurricane season stay as quiet as it has been thus far!

Don‘t get your hopes up. https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gtwo.php?basin=atlc&fdays=5

 

[thetrailboss]

A good one to bump. I know that a lot of folks here were more personally impacted by Sandy, but Irene was just off the charts crazy for Vermont. As you can see, I posted a lot in the lead-up to the event and then did not respond as it was happening or what happened after. I was extremely lucky in hindsight and narrowly avoided at least being stranded in Killington for a week or so if not being hurt or killed. Let me explain.

In the summer of 2011 I was in between VT and UT. My pregnant wife started her medical residency in Utah in late-May. I had to stay back in Vermont for business and licensing reasons. I moved out of my place on Lake Dunmore in Mid-June 2011 and split the summer between my parent's place and a summer rental at Mountain Green up at Killington.

I spent most weekends with my folks as my Dad had just suffered a bad stroke. On this weekend, I decided to go up to the NEK as I usually did. I packed for the weekend intent on returning Sunday midday to be in place for work on Monday. I was working a short week before going back to SLC to see my wife.

Saturday, as I said, was a nice sunny day. I went to the Caledonian County Fair. Based on the forecasts, the fair, to their financial detriment, opted to cancel Sunday's events out of concern that the hurricane was going to be bad. So folks were out and about. There was a lot of concern that it was going to be bad, but we thought that meant wind and power outages. The Fair had an Eagles Tribute band play that night and I opted to stay. I believe that the opening act did their rendition of "Goodnight Irene" as kind of a joke. The evening was nice and the clouds slowly filled in.

I thought that I would get up early on Sunday to drive back to Killington. I wanted to "beat the storm". When the sun rose, I saw it was lightly raining and, as fate would have it, I interpreted that to mean that the storm was not as bad as predicted and rolled over and went back to sleep.

When I did finally get up I saw it was pouring. I figured that it was just another rain event and slowly packed up and started the drive down to Killington down I-91 to Route 4. My folks encouraged me to stay but I assumed that I would need to go into work the next day.

When I got to WRJ it was clearly bad. The rains were some of the heaviest I have seen. When I got onto Route 4 and headed west the rivers got much higher. By the time I got to Woodstock it was already bad. I hit stopped traffic just west of the village and then met a stopped sheriff's deputy who was turning folks around. He merely looked at my 2008 Honda Civic, shook his head, and motioned for me to turn around. I was literally 30 minutes from my place but had to turn around. I pulled over and looked at the GPS and maps to see if I could go around somehow. My folks told me to come home as they were seeing on WCAX that things were bad. Radio stations were not really covering it, except for WDEV who stopped their usual broadcast and were taking calls and communicating the situation almost non-stop as parts of Waterbury began to flood. I called them and told them that Route 4 was closed. Admittedly it was south of their broadcast area, but they relayed the information to listeners. The one station that had statewide reach, VPR, just continued to broadcast their Prairie Home Companion and other NPR shows with no information whatsoever about the natural disaster that was unfolding. I was a big fan of them before but on the day when folks really needed them they completely dropped their public service duties.

I started up Route 12 looking for ways to cut cross lots to get to Route 100/107 and then drop south to the highland of Killington. As I went along there were road closures and detours left and right. WDEV was taking calls from all over about bad flooding and power outages. By getting creative, I dropped into the White River Valley near Royalton, saw the roaring White River, and headed towards Bethel intent on heading south on 107. Admittedly, my desire to get "home" was great. As I was heading south on 107 I was hearing reports of Rochester and Pittsfield reporting and losing whole roads. I got just south where Route 12 came onto Route 107 and saw a stream spilling over the road and dumping silt and debris on the road. Though I had NEVER driven through standing water and flooded roads, for some dumb reason I drove on until I realized that it was VERY likely that I would either get stranded or killed by the flooding rivers. As a soon-to-be Dad, I realized that this was stupid and just turned right around in the middle of Route 107 and headed home.

When I got to Lyndonville the situation was much worse and it was flooding in places where it had never flooded. I watched the events on WCAX and watched as Waterbury was all but destroyed.

I was lucky but I narrowly avoided being stuck in Killington with no power, no services, and no way out for several days.

 

[Abubob]

I was lucky but I narrowly avoided being stuck in Killington with no power, no services, and no way out for several days.

You really drove into the teeth of that storm. You were certainly quite fortunate despite your misguided determination.

 

[thetrailboss]

You really drove into the teeth of that storm. You were certainly quite fortunate despite your misguided determination.

Yep. It was batshit crazy. What was even more interesting was looking at it that evening in hindsight--"what the hell was I thinking?" This is coming from someone who (at least thinks he) is smart and has his wits about him, but in the moment you just think, "oh it is not THAT bad." I remember driving over the flooding stream on 107 and realizing, "is this a good idea?" It was not worth it. I think that there was a good chance that I would have hit a major washout and then had to turn around only to be stuck.

When I made it back to Lyndonville I took a walk up our road and soon realized that the river had risen on BOTH ends of our property so that for a short while we were cut off from leaving or going anywhere. Thank God my Dad did not have a medical episode.

The other part of the story was about three WEEKS later when I returned from SLC and had to get back to Rutland for work. It required me to drive down to Bellows Falls, up Route 103 to Rutland. After work for almost the next week when I needed to get back to home at Killington I had to park my car at the Home Depot off of Route 4, take a bus, then walk on the make-shift Mendon footpath to another bus, and then ride up to Killington. Route 4 disappeared on this stretch. When I finally made it back to my place at Mountain Green I found everything right where I left it, including the fire lay I had built in the fireplace "just in case" the power and heat went out during the storm. Pretty spooky. Seeing KBL washed out was also batshit crazy.

Vermont was really destroyed. The ENTIRE state complex in Waterbury, including the Emergency Management Office, was flooded and had to be torn down. I felt like a lot of folks not from VT did not understand how BAD it really was.