Middlebury hit by historic storm, flooding: Community in stages of clean up

MIDDLEBURY ― Otter Creek, running under Middlebury’s Main Street, has been rising since the first historic storms hit Vermont in early July. Though the river crept up banks, with continuous storms changing the rhythm of Middlebury life, the town remained largely unscathed – until Thursday, Aug. 3, when Addison County endured the brunt of the storms.

A month’s worth of rain deluged Middlebury in the span of three hours on Aug. 3, the water rising over roads until they were impassible, carving new paths in the surrounding woods and running into homes and businesses.

It rained approximately 6 inches between 8 a.m. Aug., 3 and 8 a.m. Aug., 4 according to the National Weather Service’s seven-day precipitation report.

The Middlebury Police Department building, located just off of Seymour Street where the water level became high enough to cover cars, closed and began operating on one line, telling residents that there would be a delay in emergency response.

“Localized flooding necessitated the evacuation of 35 individuals. There was one injury reported and one swift water boat was significantly damaged during a rescue,” Commissioner of Public Safety Jennifer Morrison said at the governor’s Aug. 8 press conference, referring to both Rutland and Addison counties. “This brings the number of lives rescued to 216 in the past month,” Morrison said.

Majority of evacuations occurred in Rutland on Friday night, though three people were rescued through the roof of a car in Middlebury Thursday night, Morrison said.

On Tuesday, the National Weather Service issued another Flash Flood Warning in Middlebury through 12 a.m. Aug. 9.

Thursday night at Davis Family Library

Joseph Watson was turned around by road closures 3 times on Thursday night trying to get to Middlebury College’s Davis Library after the circulation desk notified him water had entered the basement through an emergency exit door.

The basement houses Middlebury College’s Special Collections, full of the college’s rare books, manuscripts and archival collections where Watson is the preservation manager. Notable collections include the Abernathy Collection, 18th-20th century literature archives with manuscripts from authors such as Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson and T.S. Eliot.

Luckily, by the time Watson got to the college, his colleague that lives a block away had already gotten there and let in staff from facilities services who immediately swept up the water.

“Facilities services’ response was fantastic. They dealt with the situation, and everything was actually well in hand when I arrived,” Watson said.

Nothing sustained damage in Middlebury’s Special Collections.

Special Collections’ work is to preserve old, organic matter from the elements, though extreme flooding is not among the elements preservation protects again. Watson is not only the preservation manager and a special collections associate, but is also the regional coordinator for VACDaRN, Vermont Arts and Culture Disaster and Resilience Network.

Had there been more intense water incursion, reaching out to VACDaRN for assistance would have been the first step towards recovery, Watson said.

All road closures that delayed Watson’s drive to the college have since reopened, with the exception of High Street, where a mudslide occurred due to the storm.

Town damage control and recovery

Not everything could be spared. Community members took to Front Porch Forum to request help cleaning up driveways, referrals for junk removal and basement repairs, and announcements updating the status of roads and water.

The Mad Taco, a Vermont Latin American chain with four locations, closed its Middlebury restaurant due to flooding on Friday. Men in hazmat suits have since been seen cleaning up the restaurant, using big hoses to suck out the water.

“After inspecting the damage from the flooding that happened at our Middlebury shop on Thursday evening (8/3), we have determined that it was worse than first thought, and we now anticipate being closed for at least a week, possibly two,” the restaurant website reads.

The restaurant occupies the basement of the Old Stone Mill, sitting right on the river bank. What makes for a scenic burrito dinner ultimately led the restaurant to be one of the only businesses forced to temporarily close due to flooding.

The chain’s Montpelier location was also flooded in the July 10 storm and has been temporarily closed since.

Trail Around Middlebury (TAM) saturated

A hallmark of Middlebury life is the TAM, 19 miles of continuous trail maintained by the Middlebury Area Land Trust, MALT, that connects the college, neighborhoods, pastures, woods, and rivers.

The trail endured serious damage, though the entirety of it is still open.

Liam Hickey, volunteer and trails coordinator for MALT, said the Wright Park and Chipman Hill sections of the trail sustained the greatest damage. Side trails in Wright Park are closed. Otter Creek View Park, technically not part of the TAM, also sustained immense damage.

Recovery for the TAM will include repairing boardwalks and bridges.

“Some of our boardwalks and bridges have just up and floated away and we don’t know where they are,” Hickey said.

On the ‘97 trail section of the TAM which connects Middlebury College’s Knoll Organic Farm to Weybridge Street, a brand new boardwalk built a few weeks ago was ripped out at the hardware.

In some areas, the trail will need to be rerouted because the trail has essentially fallen into the river, Hickey said.

In recovery and repair efforts MALT considers the likelihood that this will happen again – especially with more rain in the forecast.

“Other places, we might decide to put entirely new boardwalks because we are expecting this type of event to be more frequent and more common,” Hickey said.

MALT’s work is heavily dependent on volunteers and will definitely be in need of people willing to help clean up the TAM when it is time. People interested in volunteering should go to www.maltvt.org/volunteer.

Report damages

As has been the protocol in surrounding areas impacted by floods, it is imperative that anyone whose property sustained damages from storms or floods report it as soon as possible to 211 by calling 2-1-1 or going to vermont211.org.

Addison County has not received a disaster declaration from FEMA. Substantial damages reported will garner that declaration.

Contact Free Press reporter Kate Sadoff at ksadoff@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Middlebury recovers after a month's worth of rain falls in 3 hours