Reports vary as to just how much rain fell late Saturday afternoon, May 17, during a very localized downburst that sat over Warren and Waitsfield for long enough to wash out local and state roads as well as quite a few driveways.
In Warren, emergency management director and town constable Jeff Campbell said he had reports of up to 3 inches in 46 minutes and in Waitsfield, road foreman Charlie Goodman said 2.5 inches were clocked in 25 minutes. Either way, roads washed out, Route 100 was closed when the culvert by Madbush Falls blew out (again) and local road crews scrambled into action.
“What’s interesting is that that brook which runs under the dip on East Warren Road in Waitsfield is the one that washed out Rolston Road, and then took out the culvert on Route 100 by Madbush. Same brook,” Goodman said.
Despite the flooding, Harwood Union’s prom went off without a hitch where it was hosted at the Lodge at Spruce Peak in Stowe.
As of press time on May 21, all local roads are passable with one lane and primarily for local traffic in the case of Dump Road in Warren. Dump Road, Brook Road and Airport Road were washed out in Warren. The damage to Brook Road came from run off from Dump Road, Campbell said. Waitsfield’s planned road work on Joslin Hill, East Warren Road and Slow Road are postponed for at least a day or two, Goodman said. Look for that work to get underway later this week.
Two culverts on Airport Road in Warren were replaced and another section of Airport Road, below Highland Drive is still undergoing repairs, Warren town administrator Rebecca Campbell said.
On Dump Road it’s passable for trucks but there is still a fair amount of work needed, including re-establishing ditches.
In Waitsfield, Butternut Hill Road was completely washed out (for the second time in two years) near the top and midway down, leaving residents cut off, Goodman said. That road was open again with one lane of travel by Sunday afternoon, Goodman said.
“That’s a 4-foot culvert, the one we installed two years ago, but what happened was that debris came down and plugged it. I’m trying to clear that out and our intentions are to walk up that stream and see what’s going on because every time we get high water we have debris coming down and plugging them,” he said.
Rolston Road, already one lane in several places in Waitsfield, was carved away to less than one lane in several spots and was closed until later on Sunday as well. Waitsfield also saw damage to Sherman Road and its own Brook Road with driveways and culverts damaged on Deer Run Lane and other localized areas.
In Fayston, Route 17 was closed by VTrans from German Flats to the top from Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning. Also, in Fayston, Tucker Hill Road took a beating, with multiple driveways and culverts washed out and several sections of the road reduced to a single lane or less. Thanks to quick response from Tony Long, a Fayston road crew member, that road was made passable fairly quickly.
Crews from Moretown along with private contractors were helping fix the washouts and driveways throughout the impacted areas on Sunday and Monday.
