Moretown Elementary School remains closed after its boilers and first floor classrooms were damaged during Monday, December 18, flooding that closed schools, roads, businesses and required the evacuation of Moretown Village mid-afternoon.
Moretown Elementary School was closed due to water inundation shortly after 8 a.m. and district officials made the decision to send all students home in the face of more rain, road closures and additional flooding.
Steady and then increasingly heavier rain fell throughout the morning as local emergency managers juggled roads, culverts, flooded fields and ultimately Moretown fire chief and emergency manager Stefan Pratt asked Moretown Village residents to evacuate the village in mid-afternoon.
PAST FLOOD STAGE
There was a brief lull in the rain for an hour and a half before it started again in earnest around 3 p.m. The USGS stream gage on the Mad River near Moretown started the morning at 4.52 feet (flood stage is 9 feet and extreme flooding is 13 feet) with the water discharge rate iced in until 6 a.m. when it read 1,780 cubic feet per second (CFS). Throughout the day both numbers rose up to and past flood stage. The stream gage peaked just below 13 feet at 12.95 and the discharge rose to 12,300 CFS at 3 p.m. (See chart.)
Both measures declined slowly throughout the late afternoon and evening. Pratt cancelled the evacuation orders shortly after 8 p.m. and reported that Route 100B had been reopened.
Moretown Village saw about a dozen homes with flood waters in the basements and 15 or more Waterbury homes on Elm and Randall Street had water in the basement. Waterbury’s Dac Rowe field flooded as did the Winooski Street bridge, the roundabout, Route 2, and other side roads. The back side of Moretown, along Route 2, saw flooding from the Winooski River crossing Route 2 and some of Moretown’s back roads, including River Road were closed and remain closed.
OVERRAN ITS BANKS
In Waitsfield, the Mad River overran its banks south and north of Bridge Street. Couples Club Field was submerged as were parts of the Bridge Street Marketplace, including the Sweet Spot parking lot and lawn. The field behind and beyond the Madsonian on the north side of the Waitsfield covered bridge flooded as did the field north of Waitsfield Elementary School.
There were a lot of helping hands on and around Bridge Street helping business owners move equipment and goods to higher ground, including at the Joslin Memorial Library. Many businesses closed early that day. Volunteers were on the ground again Tuesday morning to continue helping with cleanup.
In Waitsfield farm fields north of the village were flooded and Meadow Road, North Road, and Pony Farm Road were closed at times, along with portions of Route 100B, the Moretown Mountain Road, Route 100 by Mad Bush Falls due to a clogged culvert and a portion of Route 100 south of Warren was down to one lane.
MORETOWN REMAINS CLOSED
The Harwood Unified Union School District cancelled school for Tuesday, December 19. That afternoon the district reported that Moretown School would not open this week and announced plans for Moretown students and teachers to spend December 19-22 together engaged in a field trip to the North Branch Nature Center, the Montshire Museum, and a movie day at Harwood Union High School.
Moretown Elementary School was the largest public building in the state to experience flooding and the main level saw a few inches of water in the classrooms. It was the 3-plus feet of water in the boiler room that caused the most damage. Repairs to the boilers won’t happen until after the holiday break, at the earliest according to HUUSD Superintendent Mike Leichliter.
He said that the water inundation at Moretown School came from a brook behind the school (which flooded the school during Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011) rather than the Mad River.
Leichliter said he was contacted by principal Kate Liptak shortly before 8 a.m. to let him know there was a stream of water forming behind the school. She called five minutes later to report that the water was an inch from the gym and the decision was made to dismiss Moretown right away. He also noted that a new stormwater project by the school was completed by the town this summer and he said part of this week’s inundation was caused by debris and a plastic sled blocking the drain. Once that was cleaned up, the drain started working again.
SUGARBUSH
At Sugarbush communications manager John Bleh said that the resort lost most of the natural snow on its trails, but said the snowmaking trails held up better. He said the resort would go into the weekend with 21 or 22 trails at Lincoln Peak and that Mount Ellen would open this Friday with a dozen trails.
Weather temperatures are favorable for snowmaking he said, and the guns would be running nonstop.
Bleh noted that during the flooding, the Mad River jumped its banks alongside the Sugarbush snowmaking pond in Warren and diverted into the pond area, acting as a floodplain as it is designed to do. The dam at the north end of the pond remained intact.
MAD RIVER GLEN
Mad River Glen general manager Matt Lillard said that the resort lost almost all of its natural snow and the resort remains closed until today, December 21, when it will reopen with skiing on the Practice Slope.
