As boats cruised by on the clearing waters of Lake Champlain, Gov. Peter Shumlin’s cabinet members gathered on the Burlington waterfront Tuesday to tell the public that Vermont is ready for business.
With spring coming to an official end, Lake Champlain has been left with its largest flood in recorded history, washing away roads throughout the state while damaging businesses, homes and summer camps. Finally, it appears the water is receding to a level more manageable for Vermonters to get back on the water for swimming, boating and fishing.
According to Secretary of Natural Resources Deb Markowitz, the flooding put pressure on some of the waste water treatment plants throughout the state, resulting in overspills and weekly state water tests to ensure Lake Champlain and other lakes at Vermont state parks are safe for swimming.
The lake’s most recent depth reading came in at just below flood stage of 100 feet.
Secretary of Transportation Brian Searles said that there are still some costs unaccounted for, such as power lines running under rock that was placed on top of causeways. After the water goes down a bit more, the rock can be removed and those additional costs can be taken into account before a final damage estimate is made.
“Damages to highways and related facilities are now somewhere between $16 million and $18 million. It’s going to go up. We don’t know the total, and won’t until the lake goes down a bit more and we are able to consider what it’s going to take to implement permanent repairs.” Searles said.
Searles added that the good news is that all state roads are now open.
Since April, considered the beginning of the flood period, 36 state roads closed; adding in closed local roads, the number was much higher.
Searles reminded Vermonters that the surfaces of many roads are still showing damage, since spring repair crews are made up of the same people tending to flood damage. He said he expects there will be a six-week delay on the maintenances of some roads.
In addition to people working hard with different municipals to get things cleaned up, businesses are also scrambling to repair damage caused by the flooding. Gov. Shumlin, along with the Vermont Economic Development Authority, created a low-interest loan system for businesses to apply for up to $25,000 for damages from the flood. According to Sue Allen, special assistant to the governor, there were approximately 17 businesses that had applied and 11 had been approved as of June 20. Allen suspects there will be enough money to respond to all applicants unless businesses start requesting the maximum amount, which will cause the $3 million budget to disappear quickly.
Because it has been such a nasty spring and the weather has been breaking records, people wonder if more of the same can be expected in upcoming years.
Markowitz said: “There have been a lot of questions coming to my desk asking whether or not what we saw this spring is a 500-year flood occurrence, or if it’s the new normal, and I would have to say that it would be irresponsible for us to not plan ahead and not to plan for greater rainfall and greater flooding into the future.”
