Heavy rain causes river to rise five feet in minutes, flash flooding follows for third straight year

Weather graph shows the Passumpsic River rose about five feet in a short period of time. All photos from East Burke Fire Brigade Facebook page, except bottom left from Sam Douglass Facebook page.

By Guy Page

Just hours after Vermont Governor Phil Scott visited the Northeast Kingdom to praise the heroic work of first responders and neighbors during the July 10 flooding of 2023 and 2024, Mother Nature showed she hadn’t forgotten what day it was. 

In Sutton and East Burke, and in at least two Lamoille County towns located more than an hour away, heavy rains led to flash floods and the familiar sight washed out roads and fields.

And there was another familiar sight: residents of Northern Caledonia County being rescued. 

“This afternoon / early evening our area experienced what has become an annual natural disaster flooding event,” the East Burke Fire Brigade reported on Facebook.

Several locations on VT 114 and secondary town roads had water overcome and compromise the roadways, the EBFB said. Residents in several locations were trapped by flood waters, and required assistance and rescue from East Burke Fire Brigade and mutual aid partners Lyndonville Fire Department Swift Water Team who worked seamlessly with us to provide water rescue services to all those in need.

The river gauge on Worden Road in East Burke indicated a sharp rise of approximately 5 feet in just minutes. On a normal day the flow is around 23 cubic feet of water per second, with the rapid rise today it was flowing over 1300 cubic feet per second. This sharp rise in water runoff overwhelms culverts, brooks and bridges quickly, with little to no warning, the EBFB said.

“A huge shout out and thank you to our dispatchers at St. Johnsbury Emergency Dispatch for navigating the chaos of multi agency incidents and needs, all occurring in several different towns, all coming in at a constant rate for 3+ hours, and they didn’t miss a beat,” the East Burke Fire Brigade said.

Flooding yesterday was nowhere near as widespread as in 2023 and 2024, due to less rain falling and (perhaps) flood mitigation efforts. There are reports of washouts in Johnson and Stowe, and of rescue workers rescuing residents in the latter town.