BERLIN — A New Hampshire National Guard helicopter and its four crew members rescued three people Tuesday afternoon from a home in Berlin threatened by rising waters.
“It was interesting for sure,” Rosie Laquerre, 57, said about how she and her cat, Cricket, were hoisted from the ground in a rescue basket 70 feet in the air into a Black Hawk chopper.
Laquerre, her son Ryan Laquerre, 26, and family friend Justin Plummer, 24, recounted their rescue from a room inside the Edward F. Knapp State Airport in Berlin, where they were taken by the helicopter after being lifted from their residence on Junction Road.
“We decided to consider this a whole grand adventure rather than an obstacle,” Rosie Laquerre added, with the cat nearby inside a carrier.
Laquerre, who is the East Montpelier town clerk, said she had called for assistance Monday night as rising water from the nearby Winooski River approached the apartment house where she lived on the second floor.
Tenants on the lower floor, she said, had evacuated earlier Monday.
Laquerre said authorities told her that a boat rescue Monday night wouldn’t be possible because of the fast-moving current of the river.
“We’re right on the river,” she said.
As the river continued to rise overnight Monday into Tuesday, water began coming into the building and Laquerre called again for help. The National Guard helicopter arrived early Tuesday above the residence.
The copter couldn’t land on the property and needed to hoist all three people up because of nearby trees and the amount of water all around the area, Laquerre said.
“It’s like we were on our own little island,” she said. “The road on both sides of us was completely washed out.”
At the airport, the three rescued people said they were awaiting family from Brookfield to pick them up and to provide them shelter until they can return to their home in Berlin.
In addition to the cat, the Laquerres and Plummer left the residence with a couple of days worth of belongings.
Sgt. Andy Morgan of the New Hampshire National Guard was a flight medic on the four-person crew who carried out the rescue.
“Everything went well and we’re just glad we could help,” he said at the airport.
Rosie Laquerre said she was happy everyone was safely rescued and any lost personal items in the flooding could be replaced.
She added that she had lived at the residence for about five years and had never seen the water in the river rise as high as it did this week.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported which National Guard force performed the rescue.
