The floods are already dangerous, and they threaten to be catastrophic. More than 100 people have been rescued in Vermont, in the northeastern United States, authorities announced on Tuesday, as a dam threatens to overflow upstream from the city of Montpellier.
At midday, the water level of the Wrightsville Dam, which was built in 1933 and has never overflowed, was less than 30 cm from its maximum, after the Winooski River flooded more than 4 meters in the past two days. An overflow could have serious consequences for the city of Montpelier, where there is already up to 50 cm of water in the city center.
A dead person
The states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Vermont were all subject to flash flood warnings issued Monday by the United States Weather Services (NWS), which warns that these floods can be “deadly”.
A state of emergency has been declared in Vermont and several counties in New York, including Orange, where authorities have declared a state of emergency and confirmed that the bad weather has caused a victim , a 35-year-old woman.
“She went out, it seems her house was taking on too much water. She was with her dog and her fiancé saw her literally get carried away,” New York State Governor Kathy Hochul said in the village of Highland Falls, one of the hardest hit, at 1:30 a.m. drive north of New York.
” Climate change “
The Democratic Governor called on the population to “mobilize to fight against the ravages of climate change, because once again, these are unprecedented phenomena that continue to hit us again and again”.
In New York State, heavy rains turned streets into torrents, washing away sections of roadways and bridges, and stranding people in their cars.
Rainfall of around 200 mm in places caused “conditions that could be life-threatening due to flash floods”, said Governor Kathy Hochul.
More than 12,000 customers were without power on Sunday evening, according to the governor’s services, and 6,000 remained without power on Monday morning, according to the specialized site PowerOutage. Highways were closed Sunday night in at least five counties across the state. And the rail company Amtrak suspended the connection between the capital of the State, Albany, and the city of New York “due to severe weather conditions”.
If a lull in the weather is looming for two days, heavy rains are expected to resume on Thursday.