WVTK Local & State News August 30, 2011

Emergency supplies provided by the federal government are going to be distributed across Vermont to people and communities still reeling from the effects of the remnants of Hurricane Irene. Thirty trucks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrived at the Vermont National Guard's Camp Johnson early Tuesday. The trucks carried supplies such as food, blankets and other necessary items. Those supplies are now being distributed to the Vermont communities in greatest need. Helicopters will be used to distribute the supplies to communities that are unreachable by roadways. Trucks driven by National Guard soldiers will distribute the supplies to the communities reachable by land.

Vermont's largest electric utility says it could be weeks before all of its customers get their power back. The Central Vermont Public Service Corp. says that as of Tuesday morning almost 19,000 customers remained without power. At the peak of the storm about 70,000 CVPS customers were without power. Vermont's other utilities are reporting about 1,200 outages. The remnants of Irene did more than just drop trees onto power lines. Some CVPS electric substations were damaged or destroyed by floodwaters and power cannot be restored in some areas until roads into the areas have been repaired. In some areas, entire sections of the utility system will have to be rebuilt.

The town of Bristol issued a boil water order on Sunday for all residents who use water from the municipal water system. They should continue to boil their water for five minutes before consuming it until further notice. The order was issued after the New Haven River potentially inundated part of the water system. As a precaution, the entire system is being flushed out and sterilized. This process could take several days and requires three consecutive clean tests before the order can be dropped.

A boil water order has been issued for the Town of Moriah until further notice. The order is the result of two water line breaks.

Irene's rain and strong winds also knocked out power to tens of thousands of people across the state. As of 5PM Monday the hardest his area was Windsor County where more than 13,000 homes were without power. Next was Rutland with more than 8,000. In Orange County 4,500 are without power. And in Windham outages are just under 3,000. Utility officials say it could be days or even weeks before they get to everyone, simply because there are so many road closures and so many communities that are isolated.

Residents across Addison County and Brandon continue to cope with the massive amount of water that the remnants of Hurricane Irene dumped on Vermont over the weekend. Thousands of utility customers lost power at some point during the storm. Middlebury College reported 3.21 inches of rain with maximum winds there clocked at 37 mph. Rainfalls elsewhere were believed to be even higher. A Cornwall resident reported 4.5 inches at his rain gauge. Flooding was also bad in Brandon, where Route 7 was reported flooded from McConnell Road in the south all the way to Route 73 in the village.

Route 7 in Brandon was closed Monday morning due to flooding from the Neshobe River and probably will remain that way for several days, according to Select Board Chairman Richard Baker. It may not open until tomorrow at the earliest. Baker said costs for infrastructure repairs were still being calculated downtown and on Newton Road in Forest Dale, which was completely washed out. Without factoring in the damage to private property in the downtown, where Brandon House of Pizza was washed off its foundation, Baker estimated the repairs would easily top $1 million.

Residents of Rutland town and Rutland City are being asked to limit water use. At the board of Alderman meeting Monday night, Mayor Chris Louras announced significant damage to the intake system at the city reservoir. The reservoir takes in water from the Mendon Brook on Route 4, which was compromised by the storm. He says there is about a two-day supply of water at the treatment facility and up to 30 days left in the reservoir, which can no longer take in water. The Mayor has yet to determine a cost or put a time frame on repairing the intake system.

By the time Hurricane Irene reached the Ticonderoga area on Sunday, it had been officially downgraded to a tropic storm. The remnants of the hurricane dumped heavy rain and brought strong winds that caused flooding, downed trees and left thousands with out electricity. Town and county highway workers, firefighters, police and others responded to the storm, which began with light rain at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday. The strongest portion of the storm hit at about noon and lasted until about 4PM. Rain continued into Monday morning.

On Monday President Obama signed an emergency declaration to deal with Vermont flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. In a statement from the White House the President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Vermont and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Hurricane Irene beginning on August 26, 2011, and continuing.

Part of a ski lodge has collapsed at Vermont's Killington resort and about 300 hotel guests are stranded at a nearby inn because of road damage from Tropical Storm Irene. The flooding of the Roaring Brook eroded part of the K-1 lodge. About half of the Superstar Pub collapsed meanwhile, 300 guests were stranded at the Inn of the Six Mountains, which is cut off by road damage.

Several communities are considered islands now, cut off from the rest of the state because roads and bridges are washed out. And that is making it very difficult for state and federal help to move in. They are Bennington, Cavendish, Chester, Granville, Killington, Mendon, Middletown Springs, Strafford, Stratton and Wilmington. There will be a meeting at the Dover School today at 2PM for Wilmington and Dover residents and business owners, aiming to get more information and resources to the community.

The state office complex and state hospital in Waterbury are crippled and could remain that way for weeks. Gov. Peter Shumlin says much of the state office complex, the nerve center for state government, was underwater. That includes many of the computers that run human services and other programs. Shumlin says no employees who work at the Waterbury complex should come to work this week unless they are contacted by supervisors. About 52 patients from the state hospital, which was also flooded, had to be relocated to other facilities around the state.

Officials say three people have died and one person is missing in Vermont in flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Irene. Vermont Emergency Management officials say a woman drowned in the Deerfield River in Wilmington; a man was killed in Mendon after being swept away by floodwaters, and his companion is still missing. And police said Monday that another man was found dead in Lake Rescue in Ludlow.

It appears most New England apple orchards came through Tropical Storm Irene largely unscathed. Russell Powell, director of the New England Apple Growers Association, said Monday that he has heard reports of some tree damage from high winds and fruit being knocked to the ground. But, overall, he said most growers are "breathing a sigh of relief" that the storm did not cause more problems just as apple-picking season was getting under way in the region. Powell did caution, however, that he has not yet heard from growers in Connecticut or in Vermont - states hit hard by flooding from Irene.

Vermont officials say it would not have helped to issue more extensive evacuation orders before the arrival of Tropical Storm Irene because it was impossible to tell where flooding would be at its worst. Both Gov. Peter Shumlin and Sen. Patrick Leahy say there are several instances around the state where one town was unscathed, while another in the same river valley was devastated. Leahy said Monday there was concern that telling people to go to another location would have put them in more danger than if they stayed home. The men were responding to criticism voiced by some in the national media that Vermont was not aggressive enough about ordering evacuations.

Former Vermont Governor Jim Douglas is settling into his position as an executive in residence at Middlebury College. Part of his role is to deliver guest lectures at various classes, primarily those dealing with the field of political science. He taught a course titled, “Vermont Government and Politics” during the 2011 winter term, and will teach the same course again this winter. He is also enjoying spare time and more time with his family.

Three years after the Legislature passed Act 92, the Vermont Energy Efficiency and Affordability Act, the state is not on pace to reach the act’s goal of improving energy efficiency in 25 percent of Vermont homes, roughly 80,000, by 2020. Instead, the state is likely to fall short of this goal by 28,000 homes. One Middlebury resident says she’s not surprised given the high upfront cost of weatherizing a home, which can be around $7,500. For low-income Vermonters, a recent report recognizes the need for subsidies in order to finance home improvement projects.

Young scientists from across the globe will join forces at the fifth International Earth Science Olympiad in Modena, Italy, next month to help solve some Italian environmental problems. Two key members of the U.S. team are from Addison County: Mount Abraham Union High School physics teacher Tom Tailer and team member Kenny Micklas, who is a senior at Mount Abe and a Lincoln resident. The event takes place September 5th – 14th.