Darxus

Irene flooding in Vermont

darxus

9/1/11 03:41 pm

"...part or nearly all of a dozen communities remained unreachable: Bennington, Cavendish, Chester, Granville, Killington, Ludlow, Mendon, Middletown Springs, Rochester, Stockbridge and Wilmington." - AP

Would it have been this bad in New Hampshire if Irene just hadn't gone as far inland?

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• zzbottom

  9/2/11 12:38 am (UTC)

  

  I think you had a couple things going on that encouraged the damage. First, if my memory is correct, this was an unusually wide hurricane/tropical storm, and so the duration of the rain led to some pretty tremendous rainfall numbers. Even for a hurricane, I think the ten inches this storm brought to much of Vermont to be a pretty high volume. Additionally, the topography of Vermont creates a lot of fairly narrow valleys in which the rivers are fairly mellow. Because they generally cut a modest path, their cuts into the ground just couldn't handle the rain volume. The road damage, apart from the bridge damage, is where the road are closest to the streams and brooks which became temporary raging rivers.
  
  So look at the topography in your town and surrounding areas. Does that match the parts of Vermont I am describing? Are the rivers around you banked by steep hills that will funnel the downpour into the valley quickly? If so, you could face similar damage if in the direct path of a similar storm. But, it's also pretty unusual for hurricanes and tropical storms to take a path that ostensibly shoots up the Champlain Valley.

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  • darxus

    9/2/11 01:00 am (UTC)

    

    I actually spent a while look at topo maps for this stuff when Irene was incoming. I think there's quite a lot more flat land around the flowing water in my area. Thanks, I really appreciate this response.

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  • beowabbit

    9/2/11 02:49 am (UTC)

    

    First, if my memory is correct, this was an unusually wide hurricane/tropical storm,...

    Yes, and also unusually slow-moving (so the rain lasted a long time in any given place).

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