JEFFERSONVILLE — Rescue crews evacuated 30 people from multiple properties in Cambridge overnight Tuesday, officials said, as flooding from the Lamoille River continued to pose a threat to public safety.
Officials said four people were evacuated from a motel in the village of Jeffersonville, while 26 were evacuated from two buildings just north of the Cambridge village center.
The residents were bused to condos at nearby Smugglers’ Notch Resort for shelter, according to Dan St. Cyr, the Cambridge emergency management director.
St. Cyr said about 50 people in all — including a group of senior citizens who had been evacuated from another Jeffersonville housing complex — were sheltered at the resort on Wednesday afternoon.
The overnight rescues were conducted by local firefighters and a swiftwater rescue team from Buncombe County, North Carolina. Brittany Robinson, the team’s manager, said officials had to contend with “4 to 5 feet of water, very fast-moving.”
“There was no way in or out for anybody,” Robinson said of the residents. “It was a very dangerous situation.” She noted that some residents declined to be rescued and chose to stay in their homes.
Robinson said that no one who was rescued Tuesday night was injured.
“It was a standard flood on steroids — wider and higher,” St. Cyr said of Tuesday night’s water level.
During a press conference Wednesday morning in Berlin, Public Safety Commissioner Jen Morrison characterized Lamoille County as “the hardest-hit area” in the state. She said that, throughout Lamoille County, 32 people had been rescued overnight.
The stretch of Route 15 between Cambridge and Jeffersonville remained closed to traffic Wednesday afternoon, and floodwaters still surrounded some buildings in the area.
