The Possibility of More Flooding

Flood aftermath on the Burrington Bridge Road. Photo by Charles Fergus.

Here in Vermont’s scenic Northeast Kingdom, we used to say there were more cows than people. That’s no longer true — the changes in dairy farming have dramatically shifted agriculture here — but we have increasing emphasis on diversified land use, vegetable farms, grain farms, flower farms, goat (cheese) farms, sheep farms, poultry farms, and more, helping to “keep Vermont green.”

July’s two massive rainstorms brought flash flooding of fields here and turned friendly brooks into monstrous raging rivers, creating pockets of otherworldly destruction. One of them came via Hurricane Beryl’s leftovers, in relentless and surging torrential downpours. This is not “hurricane terrain” — Vermont is better known for snowstorms and seasonal beauty. But climate change seems to have suddenly made us a landing ground for the fierce tail ends of hurricanes, and since they are named alphabetically, we all know there are more to come.

With enormous community effort, some of the damages have seen repair: Washed-out bridges dating back almost a hundred years, to the violence of the Flood of 1927 or the “Hurricane” of 1938, are gradually being restored, often with “temporary” steel structures provided through state collaboration. Roads torn away are mostly passable now, nine days after shocking damage. Many won’t be restored to full operation or hardiness for quite a while: The cost…