Lives Washed Away In Deadly Vermont Flooding

At least two people are dead and an apartment building called the Heartbreak Hotel washed away after central Vermont was pummeled by heavy rainfall and flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Beryl.

“Everybody calls it the Heartbreak Hotel. I’m not entirely sure why it’s called that," a Plainfield, Vermont, resident told The Associated Press. "It is a heartbreak, now, truly.”

T​he 8-unit apartment complex was ripped apart by floodwaters. Its remains were left teetering on the edge of a waterway in Plainfield, just east of Montpelier, the state capital.

R​esidents, relatives and neighbors surveyed the scene and came to help.

“I feel fortunate that my mom was able to get out of there," Eli Yoder told the AP. "Every person that lives there made it out of there. They lost a lot of pets, but the people got out of there.”

Beryl made landfall in Texas Monday and moved up to the Northeast, where what was left of the storm dropped up to 7 inches of rain in some areas.

Damage And Fatalities

Flood rapids wreaked havoc, prompting road closures and causing widespread damage. Plainfield officials say at least seven bridges were taken out. One person died in the Peacham community, according to Vermont Gov. Phil Scott. The victim was swept away by floodwaters while riding an all-terrain vehicle. Another person died in Lyndonville after driving into a flooded street and being swept into a hay field covered in 10 feet of water.

Floods Exactly One Year Prior

Governor Scott noted the toll as the flood occurred exactly a year after a similar disaster.

C​oncerns Over Aging Dams

T​he recent flooding has added to previously held concerns about hundreds of aging dams throughout the state. According to the Associated Press, more than a third of the dams in Vermont are more than a century old.

D​uring floods in the state last year, five dams failed and more than 50 sustained damage, VTDigger reported. Beryl's flooding event wasn't as bad, but the second bad flood in a year raises serious concerns over whether the dams can hold up as climate change brings worsening and more frequent storms.

“The many thousands of obsolete dams that remain in our rivers do not provide protection from flooding, despite what many may think,” explained Andrew Fisk, the northeast regional director for the environmental advocacy group American Rivers. "Dams not created specifically for flood protection are regularly full and do not provide storage capacity. And they also frequently direct water outside of the main channel at high velocities which causes bank erosion and impacts to communities."

S​tate Releases Money For Highway Aid

To help impacted towns deal with the cost of rebuilding damaged roads, the Vermont Agency of Transportation is releasing $29.5 million for highway repairsation ahead of schedule, Vermont Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn said at a press conference Friday.

The money, which will be appropriated from the state's annual transportation budget, was originally planned to be disbursed over six months, but will now be fully paid by early August.

I​s The Risk Over?

As the affected communities rally, collect resources and begin to work toward recovery, officials said the risk was not entirely over. Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison urged residents to avoid waterways, especially as a “summer dip” becomes more tempting in the burning heat.

“Currents are fast and there is a tremendous amount of flood debris in the water,” she told the Associated Press.

Additional thunderstorms and flooding potential are forecast along the East Coast through Friday, but the heaviest rain should stay east of the flood-ravaged areas in northern New England.

Based in New York, Weather.com reporter Tim Harris is a digital journalist with a broad reporting portfolio that spans environmental science, lifestyle topics and breaking news.