The micro-burst was centered on the Route 17/Route 100 intersection area, causing flooding of the Mill Brook as well as a significant washout of a large section of Tucker Hill Road.

Starting shortly before 9 a.m. and following a night of steady rain, the deluge led quickly to a blocked culvert on Route 17 as a torrent of water cascaded down from the area on the south side of the road between Dana Hill Road and Tucker Hill Road.

The blocked culvert sent the water across the southbound lane of Route 17 and into a private residence where it filled the yard and ultimately washed out the driveway. The water ran down Route 17 and across the Route 17 bridge over the Mill Brook, then ran behind the Baird Lumber Mill and through Dave Knoop's Mad Tree nursery behind the Smokehouse.

Meanwhile, the Mill Brook was raging and seething with large trees and other debris causing deep grinding noises as the water raced through. When the smaller streams emptied into the Mad River, water levels rose to a peak of over 4,000 cubic feet per second at the USGS gauge at the dam north of Moretown. Historic average flow for June 28 at that gauge is 83 cubic feet per second.

By Tuesday afternoon, the Fayston Road Department had filled in the deepest of the washouts on Tucker Hill Road and on Wednesday morning, road workers were busy reclaiming road gravel from the front yards of the two homes at the bottom of the hill which received the brunt of the moving gravel.

Flooding was also reported behind the Bridge Street Marketplace in Waitsfield when the smaller streams emptied into the Mad River.

 

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