extreme weather
Floods in Northeastern United States
A car drives down a flooded road in Vermont, United States. Governor Phil Scott called the situation “historic and catastrophic”. photo
© Jeb Wallace-Brodeur/The Times Argus/AP/dpa
Streets full of mud and rubble, entire districts under water: continuous rain has hit the US state of Vermont and trapped people in their homes. In the southern United States, on the other hand, the heat is sweltering.
Heavy rains have occurred in the northwest of the caused flooding and devastation in the United States. In the meantime, the authorities feared for the stability of a dam in the northeastern state of Vermont.
“The devastation and flooding we are witnessing throughout Vermont is historic and catastrophic,” Gov. Phil Scott said. Streets were doused in mud and people were temporarily trapped in their homes. The situation relaxed on Wednesday – the emergency services concentrated on the clean-up work. In other parts of the country, the weather service warned of extreme heat.
All clear for the dam
Vermont’s capital, Montpelier, was particularly hard hit by the floods, with much of its center under water. Pictures showed, among other things, kayakers paddling across a flooded road. On Tuesday evening (local time), the authorities initially gave the all-clear with a view of the Wrightsville dam, which threatened to break. The water level of the dam is beginning to drop, it said. In the unlikely event of a dam bursting, the North Branch River’s low levels could absorb the excess water.
Some streets in Montpelier have been reopened to traffic, it said. “However, please avoid driving through the city center unless absolutely necessary,” authorities warned. Flooding should ease further on Wednesday amid generally dry conditions, the weather service said. However, the meteorologists predicted more showers and storms for Thursday and Friday. “This will increase the risk of further flooding.”
The south suffers from extreme heat
US President Joe Biden had declared a disaster for Vermont. This allows federal funds to be released for relief measures. When there are storms in the country, the US government regularly declares a disaster in order to ensure rapid support for the affected regions. The death of a woman who died as a result of the exceptionally heavy rainfall was reported in the neighboring state of New York on Monday. The 30-year-old drowned in Orange County trying to escape with her dog from a house surrounded by water.
The flooding coincides with a number of other extreme weather phenomena in North America and around the world. Canada is experiencing an unprecedentedly severe forest fire season, with thick clouds of smoke even covering a number of major US cities such as New York, Washington and Chicago. In addition, a heat wave in the southern and southwestern United States will bring extreme temperatures. Locally, the temperatures could feel like almost 50 degrees, according to the weather service. He spoke of a so-called heat dome – a high pressure area that encloses the heat like under a large dome. Scientists assume that the man-made climate crisis is making certain extreme weather events more likely.