A home ripped from its foundation, cars turned over in driveways, dozens of uprooted trees and a bridge split by floodwaters.
These were the scenes in the Northeast Kingdom on Friday morning, after a flash flood tore through parts of small towns like West Burke, Lyndon and Sutton on Thursday night
This is the third year in a row that Vermont has experienced major flooding on July 10, causing Northeast Kingdom residents to question what the state can do to prevent what is becoming an annual tragedy.
‘We’ve lost everything’
Michael Fix was having a great Thursday afternoon at his home in Sutton — the smoker was cooking, the canopy was up, the weather was nice, and his wife was preparing for a job interview. Shortly after returning from putting gas in their car, the downpour began and didn’t stop.
A car drove by his house, backed up 8 feet and hauled out of the neighborhood. When Fix stepped outside to investigate, he said he was met with heavy winds against his head and water rising from his ankles to his shins within seconds. He pushed himself against the garage as he struggled to make it back inside. The wind blew open his front door, and water began to enter the home.
An hour later, Fix would squeeze onto the roof with his wife and dog, rain beating down on them as a water rescue team fought to bring the couple to safety.
“It was just running through the house. I got the door shut, my wife and my dog were in here, so she called 911,” he said.
Their neighbors from across the way, fire chief Kyle Seymour and his wife, rushed down to the Fixes’ home, standing across the street from the quickly flooding scene.
“Even though it was so hard to hear, they came down the hill and were like, ‘We know you’re here. Help is coming,’” Fix said.
It was only when state and Lyndon police arrived to help that the Fixes learned their home had come off its foundation.
“They told us to get out of the house and get on the roof and just get as far away from the main structure as possible,” Fix said.
Following the rescue, the Fixes were brought to the Lyndon Fire Department, where they reunited with their son. They spent Thursday night in their son’s new apartment.
“We moved in December 2001 and we loved it here, and in 2003 we got blessed with our son Evan and we raised him here,” Fix said through tears. “It was just a great place to raise my son, and we could walk to school, it was right up the hill.”
The Fixes said they don’t know what’s next for them. Their home is gone, and the two cars that once sat in their driveway — a new white Chevrolet Trailblazer and a green Subaru their son fixed up, sat tilted and wrecked in the driveway Friday.
“Insurance has told us they’re not gonna cover anything of the house damage. We’re just hoping they’ll cover the cars,” Fix said. “We got some other friends that might be able to help us out after that. … They said there might be some housing help available, so right now it’s just trying to save what we can from the house.”
Fix, a self-employed painter and carpenter, turned to his garage.
“All my ladders are gone. Can’t even get into the garage to see what’s up with the tools. I know it’s just filled up to my belly in mud, and I can’t even get the door open,” he said.
For now, Fix said he intends to clear out what remains of his son’s belongings and bring them back to the apartment.
“It’s just baby steps right now. Try to help get his stuff out and then, come back and then, do the next piece,” Fix said, looking back at his house. “We’ve lost everything.”
‘Holy smokes’
In Lyndon on Friday morning, Josh Robinson, a car parts salesman, walked past television reporters to stare down at a bridge cleaved in half.
“Holy smokes,” he muttered to himself.
A bridge on Lynburke Road that typically sits over the Passumpsic River had been split by floodwaters the night before. Around 8 feet of the bridge was gone, some of it laying in the new hole in the middle of the bridge, some of it washing away down the Passumpic.
A swirling mass of pink, blue and yellow flowed on top of the river nearby — the result of fuel mixing with the water below.
“We’re not 100% sure where it’s coming from. State natural resources and myself have been monitoring it. There’s a car crushing company and an old junkyard just up the stream there,” Lyndon Health Officer Patrick McLaughlin said. “We have these large floods that flooded the complete junkyard, and so any oils that are left in the vehicles sometimes leach into the water. … All those cars were underwater when the river flooded.”
Robinson, who has lived in Vermont for 39 years, reflected on last year’s flood destruction.
“There was a military vehicle, and it was tipped on the side and the water was right up almost to the motor,” he said. “It took me two and a half hours to make a 45-minute trip. They’re still working on flood damage from last year. … They’re getting worse and worse every year. Seems like more and more devastation.”
Robinson couldn’t think of a solution to the problem.
“Other than going through and making every single bridge three times bigger than they already are, what can you do about the water?” he said.
In Sutton, localized rainfall washed away road surfaces and beds around town, leaving only exposed rock underneath. Calendar Brook Road, which crosses over its namesake, was especially hard hit, Seymour, the Sutton fire chief, said.
Around 10 households still lack road access to their homes, Seymour said. Right now, their first priority is getting those people single-lane road access. On Thursday night first-responders made a number of rescue efforts.
After seeing the destruction of the Fixes’ home, Seymour doesn’t think it can be repaired.
“How do we get them a new place to live? How do we get them money for that property that now has no value?” Seymour asked. “I don’t know the answers to those questions.”
Charlotte Oliver contributed reporting.
