LUDLOW — This Windsor County town usually is known for its Okemo Mountain Resort. But on Monday, its 2,172 residents found themselves inhabiting a seeming island.
Nearly 6 inches of precipitation — as of Monday afternoon, this storm’s highest local total statewide, the National Weather Service said — closed the main Route 103 artery in and out of the town between Rutland and Springfield.
“I live across the street, so I’m here no matter what,” said a municipal employee who answered the phone in the otherwise empty town hall. “Most people are hunkering down.”
At the junction of Routes 103 and 131 in nearby Proctorsville — one of the entrances into Ludlow — Cheree Alvig stood directing traffic, keeping people out of town.
A mechanic for Vermont Rail Systems, Alvig intended to work in Rutland. But when she woke up in Cavendish and realized her path to work had been washed out, she and her boss — who’s also her dad — decided to assist with traffic control.
“We had no other way to get to work,” Alvig said. “So we were like, screw it.”
A line of tractor trailers waited along Route 103, taking turns reversing course. Earlier in the morning, Alvig said, a metal train bridge at the intersection had begun to move as the water swelled against it.
Further west along the road, at the entrance of the Okemo Mountain Resort, highway workers attempted to clear mud and water, a video posted to a local Facebook page showed.
A train trestle some 200 feet up the resort access road was reported to be washed out, the municipal employee said.
Calls to downtown businesses went unanswered Monday, while Okemo’s website reported the resort would be closed until Thursday.
Ludlow received 5.67 inches of rain as of 7 a.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service office in Burlington.
“That’s the highest we’ve seen in the state so far,” meteorologist Marlon Verasamy said.
In comparison, the town received 3.6 inches of precipitation for all of July last year and 4.25 inches on average this month in recorded history, Verasamy said.
By about 1 p.m., Alvig estimated the Black River had dropped more than a foot. Still, no one was getting into Ludlow — not this way, anyway.
“It’s all washouts down there,” Alvig said.
