WESTON — Around noon on Tuesday, Weston Selectboard member Jim Linville pulled into the village on a utility task vehicle. He had to drop off some mail, but he was also doing a damage assessment.
The town of Weston was hit by a one-two punch on Monday. The West River flooded the town, receded for a few hours, then rose again.
The biggest issue the town now faces is access. Road crews are focusing particularly on dead-end roads and residents cut off from services or emergency vehicles.
“It’s pure triage right now,” Linville said.
Linville’s house is still cut off from the main road, so he was using the UTV to get around. He walked around the back of the Weston Village Store, which had a sign on its front door saying it was “closed until further notice due to flood.” The back of the store was heavily washed away and the back wall of the building was potentially damaged, Linville said. The basement where inventory was stored was flooded Monday.
Around the village green in Weston, a small handful of people walked around in the sunshine.
The pavement around the Lawrence Hill Bridge was buckled and washed out. Yellow caution tape was strong across the street.
The Weston Playhouse had opened its doors in an attempt to air out the partially flooded theater. Its basement was still full of water. In an email to the community, the Weston Theater Company called the damage to the playhouse “a devastating blow.” An upcoming show was paused while the damage is assessed.
In the early morning hours Monday, the West River swelled from the rain and flooded Weston, crossing Route 100. The river flooded the fire station, homes and businesses — and washed out roads. In some houses directly along the river, residents were evacuated. The town had set up an emergency evacuation center at the Colonial House Inn and Motel, a couple of miles outside the village on higher ground.
Innkeeper Jeff Seymour said he first got a call from the town around 4:30 a.m. on Monday. By 8 a.m., about a dozen people from the theater company arrived at the Colonial House. Seymour said they were soon joined by a few other residents and some drivers who were stranded due to road closures. Two guests were already staying overnight for a walking tour that didn’t happen.
Across the street from the flooded fire station, Ali Ulrich and Mark Weigand woke up around 5:30 a.m. on Monday to the sound of their dogs whining. They looked outside to see multiple feet of water. Only the roofs of their cars were visible and Ulrich snapped a photo that later circulated on social media.
Ulrich and Weigand live in an old farmhouse built in 1790. It’s seen floods before, but on Monday the water flooded the basement completely and was around 2 feet deep on the first floor. The couple evacuated to a friend’s house on higher ground.
By midmorning Monday, VTDigger was able to visit the village, but then heavy rains began to cause the river to rise again. Town officials said around midafternoon that the river had crested a second time. The same places that had flooded earlier that morning were hit again. Waters didn’t recede until the evening.
Linville said the second round didn’t so much create new areas of damage as it made the previous damage worse.
On Tuesday, Ulrich and Weigand sat on the porch of their flooded farmhouse. The first floor was muddy and their furniture soggy. The couple lost three cars and for the time being won’t be able to stay in their house, which they bought from Ulrich’s parents only nine months ago. Weigand works for Okemo Mountain and his employer had offered to help the pair find housing, but with two dogs it’s difficult. They’ll continue to stay with a friend for now, but they’ll have to begin again.
“Today’s the start of our journey,” Weigand said.
Across the street, volunteers from the Weston Volunteer Fire Department were cleaning the station. There was a thick layer of mud on the floor, and a firefighter used a fire hose to push it outside. Chief Josh Allison said he hoped to get the building in good enough shape to simply put the fire engines inside, but the building was a mess. The department’s records were destroyed, computers were down and gear washers were broken.
Nearby the station, Jeff and Heather Borhek stood outside their house next to the Weston Marketplace, a small grocery store that had flooded and was closed. The married couple pulled their belongings out into the sun, emptied the collected mud, and rinsed things clean.
The couple was planning to move into a new place in Rutland in two months, but for now they’ll have to stay in the building, which will need to be stripped down to the studs to combat mold.
Up and down the main road in Weston, residents were outside chatting, sharing stories and taking stock.
Seymour, the innkeeper, sounded happy to play his part in the community.
“We just roll up our sleeves and do what we gotta do,” he said. Some town residents had helped with food for the guests. On Tuesday, many were still staying at the inn.
Seymour said that in 21 years of ownership, he’s seen the town come together in response to environmental events. Tropical Storm Irene caused significant flooding from the West River as well.
“It’s a very community-based group of people in this area,” Seymour said.
Linville said the repair efforts would go on for weeks. A paving contractor will have to handle the destruction at the Lawrence Hill Road bridge. Everyone he has spoken to, he said, has told him Monday’s damage was worse than Irene. One older resident also told him it was worse than an earlier flood in 1973.
But Linville called back to a Irene-era phrase to sum up the town’s response.
“We’re Vermont strong. We’re coming back and fixing the most pressing problems and we’ve got a solid way of prioritizing things so we’re not wasting time,” he said. “But most of this right now is just Band-Aids and triage.”