MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New York City recovering from Irene, but Vermont ravaged by flood waters

Governor Peter Shumlin: “the damage brought by Irene is the worst in 75 years”

Although hurricane Irene crossed into Canada overnight Sunday but wasn't yet through with the United States, where flood waters in Vermont caused the greatest damage in 75 years and in New York state big city commuters had to make do with slowly reawakening transit systems.

With some of Vermont's iconic covered bridges washed away, 250 roads closed and a fatality, Governor Peter Shumlin said the damage brought by Hurricane Irene is the worst in 75 years.

“Irene just deluged us with extraordinary rain” Shumlin said on the Weather Channel. “It's the worst flooding we've seen in 75 years, perhaps ever”.

Buildings were flooded and streets left underwater in many of the state's population centres including Montpelier, the capital. A 21-year-old woman died in the Deerfield River in the town of Wilmington.

The state's emergency command centre in Waterbury was overcome by flooding from the Winooski River and had to be moved to Burlington late Sunday, he said.

One covered bridge in Rockingham, 35 miles from the Massachusetts border, was destroyed, while two other bridges in town were damaged, according to Alisha Beam, public safety dispatcher. Dozens in Rockingham were evacuated from their homes, she said.

Hundreds of residents were evacuated as a result of Irene and moved to 23 shelters state-wide, Governor Shumlin said on Vermont Public Radio.

About 47,000 homes and businesses were without power Monday morning, according to data collected by Vermont Electric Cooperative. The state has a population of about 625,000, according to U.S. census data.

In Burlington, the state's largest city, 3.38 inches of rain fell, setting a record for the day and surpassing a mark set in 1971, according to the National Weather Service. St. Johnsbury, Vermont also set a record of 4.83 inches, passing the old one also reached in 1971.

Otter Creek, in Centre Rutland, Vermont, rose 13.66 feet to a record 17.21 feet, breaking the old one of 13.45 feet set by the September Hurricane of 1938.

“For many of the area rivers it exceeded the 27 flood and by extension the Hurricane of 1938,” said Andrew Loconto, a weather service meteorologist in South Burlington, Vermont. “It was definitely a historic event up here.”

The White River at West Hartford, Vermont, rose 16.47 feet by 7:30 p.m. Sunday, the last information available. The highest crest measured was 20.67 feet, which surpasses both a flood in November 1927 and the Hurricane of 1938, according to the weather service.
Vermont's 1927 flood followed 9 inches of rain, which killed 85 people and left 9,000 homeless, according to a Vermont Historical Society website

In the rest of the US eastern seaboard hurricane Irene left millions without power, killed at least two dozen and forced airlines to cancel about 9,000 flights. However for New York it never became the big-city nightmare forecasters and public officials had warned about.

Many of the worst effects arose from rains that fell inland, not the highly anticipated storm surge along the coasts. Residents of Pennsylvania and New Jersey nervously watched waters rise as hours' worth of rain funnelled into rivers and creeks. Normally narrow ribbons of water turned into raging torrents in Vermont, upstate New York and neighbouring Philadelphia late Sunday, tumbling with tree limbs, cars and parts of bridges.

“This is not over,” President Barack Obama said from the Rose Garden.

In New York City about 50,000 power customers went dark, but people there had something else to worry about: getting to work Monday.
The metropolitan area's transit system, shut down because of weather for the first time in its history, was taking many hours to get back on line. Limited bus service began Sunday and New York subway service was partially restored at 6 a.m. Monday.

Commuter rail service to Long Island and New Jersey was being partially restored, but the Metro-North Railroad to Westchester County and Connecticut was suspended because of flooding and mudslides.

Riders were warned to expect long lines and long waits, but early commuters reported empty subways and smooth rides.

Likewise, Philadelphia's transit system was mostly restarted Monday, though some train lines weren't running because of downed trees and wire damage.

Airports in New York and around the Northeast reopened to a backlog of hundreds of thousands of passengers whose flights were cancelled over the weekend.

Some of New York's yellow cabs were up to their wheel wells in water, and water rushed over a marina near the New York Mercantile Exchange, where gold and oil are traded. But the New York flooding was not extensive from Irene, whose eye passed over Coney Island and Central Park.

The New York Stock Exchange was opening for business on Monday, and the Sept. 11 memorial at the World Trade Centre site didn't lose a single tree.

Irene at one time a major hurricane with winds higher than 110 mph as it headed toward the US had dropped to 65 mph winds by the time it hit New York. It lost the characteristics of a tropical storm and had slowed to 50 mph by the time it reached Canada.

Chris Fogarty, director of the Canadian Hurricane Centre, warned of flooding and wind damage in eastern Canada and said the heaviest rainfall was expected in Quebec, where about 250,000 homes were without power.

In an early estimate, consulting firm Kinetic Analysis Corp. figured total losses from the storm at 7 billion dollars, with insured losses of 2 to 3 billion dollars. Irene was the first hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States since 2008, and came almost six years to the day after Katrina ravaged New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005.