A month’s worth of rain floods Vermont town, with more on the way

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. (AP) — Vermont’s latest summer storm dumped a month’s worth of rain in one community, leading to the rescue of three people from a car roof, and more rain was in the forecast Friday.

The highest rain totals were in Addison County, in the western part of the state, which had anywhere from 3 to 6 inches from the storm that moved through on Thursday, the National Weather Service in Burlington said.

The town of Middlebury received a month’s worth of rain in three hours, meteorologist Marvin Boyd said.

Other towns reporting high amounts included Hancock and Ripton.

In Middlebury, three people were rescued from the roof of a car that was driven across a flooded road and was swept away, said Mark Bosma, spokesperson for the Vermont Emergency Management agency.

He said the state Urban Search and Rescue team and two swiftwater teams were sent to Middlebury at the request of the town fire department.

Some roads in the area were closed, but at least a couple had reopened as of Friday morning.

More rain was expected Friday. Parts of east-central New York and nearly all of Vermont were under a flash flood watch from noon through the evening.

Bosma said additional rescue teams would be sent, depending on where the next round of storms is expected to hit.

Storms dumped up to two months’ worth of rain over a couple of days in Vermont in July, and two deaths have been attributed to the flooding.