Violent Storm Causes Flooding, Power Outages in Chittenden County

July 4th, 2012

Flooding on the Fourth at South Unioin Street: South Union Street floods on July 4, giving college students and residents of the street somewhere to cool off from the heat. Champlain College junior Sam Robe's car was flooded after 10 minutes of the downpour.

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Video by Elliot deBruyn, Free Press.

An early evening cocktail of wind, water and lightning has left many Chittenden County residents and businesses with quite the hangover.

The storm that roared through in the 7 o’clock hour on the Fourth of July knocked over trees, flooded one of Burlington’s busiest intersections and had some 5,000 utility customers scrambling for flashlights as nightfall approached Wednesday.

As of 7:15 a.m. Thursday, nearly 1,200 residences in Chittenden County remained without power. Washington County residents reported 266 outages, and Caledonia County residents reported 387 outages.

Police at that time reported all roads clear in Burlington, Colchester, Essex, South Burlington, Williston and Winooski.

During the storm Wednesday, water rushed along South Winooski Avenue with enough force to drag with it an 8-foot long, multi-pronged tree branch that came loose from a tree closer to College Street.

Workers from Mr. Mike’s Pizza, located at the corner of Main and South Winooski, stood nearly thigh deep in water scrambling to unclog storm drains that couldn’t keep up with the water’s massive flow. A mini-lake was created that extended back up Winooski and a portion of the way across the intersection. Police quickly closed off traffic as passers–by tried to leap across fast-flowing streamlets created along the street and sidewalks. When the drains were finally clear and the water went its way, a film of mud was left across the entire area — reminiscent on a smaller scale to what central and southern Vermont residents experienced last summer when Tropical Storm Irene struck.

Luke Dousevicz, co-owner of Mr. Mike’s, showed a reporter a basement-level steel door on the north side of the pizzeria’s building. It had been bent in two by the water that had tumbled down stairsteps and finally inside the basement, where it stood more than 3 feet deep at about 8 p.m. — or close to an hour after the storm.

“This is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Dousevicz, who has been co-owner, with Boudee Luangrath, of Mr. Mike’s for eight years. Twice, he looked at the giant tree branch. “I don’t even know where that tree came from,” he said the first time, and something similar the second.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20120704/NEWS02/307040011/Violent-storm-causes-flooding-outages-Chittenden-County?odyssey=tab
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