Montpelier is on the brink of disaster as police warn heavy downpours have raised the threat of reservoir water spilling into the already dangerously deluged district.
Officials in the rain-ravaged capital of Vermont said nearby Wrightsville Dam had six feet of storage capacity remaining on Monday, and by midday Tuesday this had decreased to just one foot.
According to Daily Mail, Shocking footage has shown water cascading through Montpelier’s picturesque downtown district while submerging homes and vehicles in its wake – and rising water levels now threaten to compound the situation.
Torrential downpours swept large swathes of the North East this week – including parts of New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts – and Vermont was labeled the ‘highest risk’ state by the National Weather Service.
In the capital alone emergency services have rescued more than 110 people, while many more remain trapped due to the floods cutting off 78 roads and damaging police, ambulance and fire service headquarters.
Aerial footage shows the colossal scale of the destruction, along with reservoir levels edging dangerously close to the edge of the dam.
The dam is surrounded by miles of water-logged fields leading to the city, where the streets are completely submerged.
Rescuers clad in life jackets and helmets can be seen using motorized rafts to traverse brown rivers which had been roads just days ago.
Another angle shows a figure in a canoe floating beside second-story windows amid car bonnets which are only just visible above the surface.
On Tuesday, Montpelier Police Department said water levels in Wrightsville Reservoir, Washington County, had risen five more feet since Monday night.
‘Waters are still rising at the dam and are approaching approximately one foot from the spillway,’ the force said.
‘What does that mean? Every additional foot of water that goes over the spillway doubles the amount of water entering the City from the dam.
‘We are seeing a reduction of water in the downtown, Langdon Street and VSECU areas so we have some capacity if we reach some overflow. ‘We are continuing to monitor this situation.’
The department earlier said the flash floods had taken out three radio towers used to dispatch fire engines and ambulances, along with key buildings used by first responders.
By Tuesday afternoon, they added that reservoir levels remained dangerously high and the downtown remained an ‘active emergency area’, though the water levels had not risen.
City Manager William Fraser warned that if the dam’s limit was exceeded, a spillway would release ‘a large amount of water’ into the North Branch of the Winooski River and ‘drastically add to the existing flood damage’. ‘This has never happened since the dam was built so there is no precedent for potential damage,’ he said.
