SUTTON, Vt. (AP) — Communities in rural parts of Vermont on Friday woke up once again to damaged homes and washed-out roads due to heavy rainfall and flash flooding, making it the third consecutive summer that severe floods have inundated parts of the state.

Up to 5 inches (13 centimeters) of rain fell in just a few hours on Thursday, prompting rapid flooding as local waterways began to swell, said Robert Haynes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Burlington office.

Nearly 20 homes were cut off in the small town of Sutton as a local brook quickly rose from its banks and surrounded buildings, Fire Chief Kyle Seymour said. His crews were called out to help rescue people from two homes, which required help from swift-water rescue teams called in from neighboring communities.

“This was an incredibly strong, quick-moving localized heavy water,” Seymour said. “It overwhelmed all of our road culverts, all of our streams, all of our rivers. But the actual weather event lasted three hours, with the bulk of the rain concentrated within one hour.”

Though the severity of the storms wasn’t as widespread compared to the past two years, local officials were still surveying the extent of the damage Friday morning and shaking their heads that they were dealing with flood recovery for three years in a row.

“When I started seeing the reporters saying it wasn’t going to be that bad, I didn’t believe it,” Seymour said, adding that at least one member of his crew has contemplated retiring after experiencing such repeated flood emergencies.

Michelle Tanner stood Friday on what used to be her driveway, dismayed that for the third time her property was washed out by flooding. She and her family have lived in Sutton for 25 years and want to continue doing so, but fear what another flood might do.

“We don’t know if the house will make it again,” Tanner said. “We’ll see what happens. We don’t want to start all over, though I guess we are.”

Tanner’s daughter, Tanika Allard, said taking in the flood damage once again made her tear up.

“This year by far did the worst amount of damage with the least amount of rain, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense,” she said.

According to the National Weather Service, Vermont’s experience with floods can be traced to both ongoing climate change and the state’s mountainous geography. Greater rainfall and increased moisture availability have made the state’s steep terrain more susceptible to flooding.

Elsewhere in Vermont, heavy winds blew off a significant portion of a high school’s roof in Addison County.

Meanwhile, flash flooding also occurred in Massachusetts on Thursday after rains dumped more than 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain in some areas. Some businesses were flooded in the town of Weymouth, which saw the bulk of the rain and flooding while commuters faced delays as highways and streets south of Boston flooded.

Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

Three children were found safe in the Vermont woods Friday morning after they failed to return from a hike the afternoon prior, according to officials.

Search crews found the 14-year-old boy, 12-year-old girl, and 11-year-old boy “safe and uninjured” shortly before 6 a.m. in wooded terrain about half a mile from their camp in Duxbury, Vermont State Police said in a news release. Crews escorted the children off Camel’s Hump mountain to be reunited with their families.

The children were taking part in an organized camp and set out on a 30-minute hike around 4 p.m. Thursday, police said. After they failed to return in about 90 minutes, camp personnel launched a search and called Vermont State Police at 6:20 p.m. 

Search efforts included emergency personnel from several agencies.

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between. She has been covering the Karen Read murder case.

MONTPELIER — Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas returned from a trip to Taiwan, where she led a bipartisan delegation of her fellow secretaries from the United States.

Several secretaries of state journeyed as part of a National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) delegation to Taiwan. The trip included meetings with government officials, universities, business and agriculture leaders. The delegation visited sites related to the semiconductor industry, trade organizations, and the American Institute of Taiwan.

Copeland Hanzas also focused the trip on the theme of democracy and elections, visiting Taiwan’s Central Election Commission and sharing her perspective as the Chief Election Officer for Vermont’s election administration system.

“It might not be a well-known fact, but Taiwan is actually Vermont’s second-largest export destination,” said Copeland Hanzas. “The Vermont House and Senate both passed resolutions reaffirming the strong relations between Vermont and Taiwan this session. I was honored to lead this delegation of secretaries from across the country not only to support these economic ties, but also to support Taiwan’s commitment to democracy and open government. There is so much that we can achieve by working and learning together.”

Taiwan maintains commercial, investing, trade, cultural, educational relations and people-to-people exchanges with the U.S. through the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in Washington D.C., and Taipei Economic and Cultural Offices (TECO) throughout the U.S.

NASS delegations have been visiting Taiwan for over two decades.