LYNDON, Vt. – Weeks after Jason Pilbin witnessed a driver get swept away by floodwaters, his northeastern Vermont community was ravaged again by flooding from heavy rains on Tuesday.

Pilbin went outside with a flashlight and headlamp around 2:30 a.m. to help some neighbors evacuate and then collected their vital medications about 20 minutes before their house broke in half. Then he woke up another neighbor to help her to leave her home, as well.

Nearly three weeks ago, he watched helplessly as a man drowned after getting caught while driving through floodwaters from Hurricane Beryl. “Unfortunately I wasn’t able to save him, but I was able to save these” people, Pilbin said. “I guess that makes up for some of it. It’s been rough.”

Thunderstorms and torrential rain brought another wave of violent floods early Tuesday that caved in and washed away roads, crushed vehicles, pushed homes off their foundations and led to dramatic boat rescues in northeastern Vermont. Some areas got 6 to more than 8 inches (15 to more than 20 centimeters) of rain.

More rain is forecast for central and northern Vermont on Wednesday with the possibility of flash flooding.

Mark Bosma, a spokesperson for the Vermont Emergency Management Agency, said swift water rescue teams in boats conducted approximately two dozen rescues in the dark in the hardest-hit areas late Monday and early Tuesday. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries or deaths for this round of flooding.

The Lyndonville Fire Department staffed its station with its swift water rescue team around 2:30 a.m. and started rescues around 3 a.m., said Chief Jeff Carrow.

The fresh flooding yielded similar scenes of catastrophe as the flooding weeks earlier in which two people died, but on a smaller scale. Cars and trucks were smashed and covered in mud, several homes were destroyed and pushed downstream, utility poles and power lines were knocked down, and asphalt roads yielded to cliffs in spots where roadbeds were carved away.

Police issued a “shelter in place” advisory Tuesday morning for St. Johnsbury, a town of about 6,000 people. At least 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of rain fell farther north in area of Morgan, which is near the Canada border.

In St. Johnsbury, Vanessa Allen said she knew there was a possibility of rain, but wasn’t counting on the excessive amount.

“This is devastating and was completely unexpected,” she said. “I had no idea this was coming.”

Her home was situated between two road washouts, so she was unable to leave. The roads were pockmarked and covered in debris. Nearby, she said, a house was off its foundation and blocking a road.

“It looks apocalyptic,” she said. “We’re trapped. We can’t go anywhere.”

The state experienced major flooding earlier in July from the tail end of Hurricane Beryl. The flooding destroyed roads and bridges and inundated farms. It came exactly a year after a previous bout of severe flooding hit Vermont and several other states.

Vermont has experienced four flooding events in the last year, due to a combination of climate change and the state’s mountainous geography, said Peter Banacos, science and operations officer with the weather service. Greater rainfall have made the state and its steep terrain more susceptible to flooding, he said.

The state’s soil has also been more frequently saturated, and that increases the possibility of flooding, Bancos said.

Vermont’s history of heavily manipulating its rivers and streams also plays a role in increased flooding, said Julie Moore, secretary of the state Agency of Natural Resources. Increased flooding is “a reflection of having reached our limits of being able to truly manage rivers and hold them in place,” she continued.

Roads, bridges, culverts and wastewater facilities are all especially vulnerable, Moore said. The state is in the midst of a multidecade effort to “replace them or refurbish them with our current and future climate in mind,” Moore said.

Vermont is also working to establish statewide floodplain standards.

“The last storm was a wake-up call,” Deryck Colburn said of the flooding earlier this month. “I thought I would never see anything like that again. I don’t think that holds a candle to this. Not even close.”

“There’s a lot of broken hearts,” he added.

__

Sharp reported from Portland, Maine. McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Reporters Patrick Whittle in Maine and Julie Walker in New York also contributed to this story.

Sometimes heavy rain events are widespread and sometimes they’re more localized. Either way, they can cause tremendous amounts of damage, ranging from major to even catastrophic. Last night and early Tuesday, one of these localized heavy rain events went through a small area of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.

The torrential rain was caused by an unusually well developed low-pressure area that had a lot of moisture and was moving slowly. This combination of high precipitable water — the amount of moisture available in the atmosphere — the slow movement of the storm system and probably even some topographical enhancement all contributed to dumping anywhere from 5 to 8 inches of rain in a short amount of time.

Notice how fast the Passumpsic River rose and then started to fall due to the heavy rain. This is why flash flooding is so dangerous.

When you receive this much rain in such a limited amount of time, it overwhelms streams, rivers and catch basins and the water has no place to go.

This is why flash flood warnings end up being issued and why damage can occur really fast.

Some scientists are calling this devastating flooding a 1-in-1,000-year event, but it’s not that simple.

Last night’s rain in VT had a 1 in 1,000 statistical probability of occurring. There is a 0.1% chance of that event occurring in any given year, but you don’t have to wait 1,000 years between them. You could even have these events in back-to-back years or even two in one year.

In the graphic below, the curved line marks a hypothetical list of all possible extreme rainfall events, with the caveat that the total area under the curved line must equal 1.0 or 100%. The percent chance of any single rain event being more than a specific amount is the percent of the total area to the right of that rainfall amount. The percent chance of a rain event less than or equal to that threshold can be found by subtracting the area to the right of the threshold from 100.

This recent event is being compared to some other big Vermont flooding events as far back as the 1920s and as recently as 2011, when the remnants of Hurricane Irene brought devastation to many of Vermont’s covered bridges. Those events were the type that impacted many more people and were not so localized.

There are more chances of rain in the forecast for much of New England, including the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. On Wednesday, a more widespread area of showers is likely to develop and I suspect at least some appreciable precipitation will occur.

There is the chance for more downpours, but it’s highly unlikely we will see a repeat of Tuesday morning’s event. Nevertheless, any additional rainfall will be unwelcome.

Lastly, while individual events like what we saw this morning are just simply weather in a warming climate, these events are forecast to become more frequent.

Indeed there has been a notable uptick in heavy precipitation events worldwide and the Northeast is likely to experience both localized micro events and more widespread flooding events in the coming decades.

When most restaurants are described as farm to table in New York City, the farms that produce vegetables, poultry or meat are usually located in Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess counties from 30 to 60 miles away. When The Restaurant at Hill Farm in Sunderland, Vt. discusses the same concept, its vegetable farm, producing a slew of home-made produce, is situated outside the kitchen’s door, a stone’s throw from its stoves and burners.

The Restaurant at Hill Farm has an inviting atmosphere that includes a chef’s table, where patrons can watch head chef Austin Poulin prepare his meals, a bar area with separate stools, and an outside dining patio, where patrons can smell the vegetables. And Poulin has excellent culinary credentials since he cooked for noted chef Dan Barber at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Westchester, serving as fish and meat cook for two years.

The restaurant is situated at Hill Farm, an inn with a main house with 7 rooms, a 1790 House with 5 rooms, and two cottages with 3 bedrooms each, perfect for families, with another inn across the road with 10 bedrooms, and a campus with 70 acres including 3 alpacas.

Located in Proximity to Manchester Vt.

The Restaurant at Hill Farm is located nearby Manchester, Vt, a quintessential jewel of a town that contains numerous inns including the upscale Equinox Resort and the Inn at Manchester, restaurants such as Mystic Restaurant and Silver Fork and serves as the headquarters of Orvis, the fly fishing, clothing, dry goods and travel company.

Because the eatery is located at inn, Poulin says most of its guests dine at least once at the restaurant. It also has a strong local following, which helps it withstand the slower months in winter, with heavy traffic during peak summer months, between tourists and locals.

Its goal in having the vegetable patch next door is to “implement a farm to table ideology across our whole menu, using Vermont and our surrounding resources to highlight local products,” explains Poulin. For example, of late it has been highlighting snap peas, purple-sprouting broccoli and home-grown lettuce.

A farm to table eatery in Southern Vermont, connected to an inn, is bringing the vegetable farm directly to the restaurant.

The Farm Is Right Near the Kitchen

He says many guests like to know where their food emanates from, so the garden is used “as an educational tool to peak guests’ interest and get them to ask questions about different varieties we are growing or using in the kitchen.”

For meat, poultry and fish, he taps local suppliers such as Sweet Pickins Farm that raises chicken and duck, buys beef from Woodlawn Farmstead in Pawlet, Vt, and fish from Wood Mountain Fish, such as striped bass.

Most of its entrees cost $40 to $45 each, which seems steep for southern Vermont or more appropriate to NYC’s Upper East Side. He says that many of its entrees could easy be shared and feed two to three guests.

In charge of the farm at The Restaurant at Hill Farm is Pablo Elliott, a graduate of Vassar College who served as one of its first interns at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project which started on Vassar’s land. He says guests can also wander over to the vegetable farm, outside of the restaurant, to “see something that may end up on their plate,” bringing the farm to the guest.

Lots of Vegetables In Its Farm Area

Indeed, it produces a slew of home-grown vegetables including squash, broccolini, potatoes, greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and garlic. He usually harvests the fields twice a week.

By bringing these vegetables directly into the kitchen the day they are harvested, “nothing is lost in the shipping, which is usually quality and flavor,” Elliott cites.

But the meat in the kitchen at Restaurant at Hill Farm must be acquired from nearby suppliers, so why not add cows? Elliott replies that “animals could be added, but as these projects become larger, they become more expensive. The vegetable garden plot keeps things simple.”

He considers the vegetable patch more a “guest amenity” than a cost savings venture. Costs are curtailed by having a “part-time farmer, under half acre total production and minimal labor costs,” he cites.

The night this reporter dined at The Restaurant at Hill Farms, there were only three entrees on the menu including the half-chicken, striped bass and pork chops, with numerous appetizers and small plates including pizza, fried chicken wings, charred snap peas, pita and hummus. The half-chicken with a spinach yogurt sauce was delicious.

And at the chef’s table, a couple from Scarsdale who were self-described “foodies,” grazed through the menu, ordering pizza and appetizers and were thrilled with the results.

Why keep the menu streamlined? Poulin replies that “We have an extremely small team here so in order for us to provide the best quality service and food, we keep it small.”

The restaurant is not open for lunch and is only open Wednesday through Sunday, 4 to 9 p.m., the usual hour when many Vermont restaurants close.

Reaction from one guest on Yelp was extremely positive. Aaron from San Jose, Calif, said the menu had “everything from pizza cooked in their woodfire oven to fresh caught wild bass or oyster mushroom risotto.” He called the interior “cozy and intimate with high ceilings and a lot of wooden beams,” and he added there were many local craft beers on the menu.

His only drawback was he found it a bit warm inside because of how the wood-fired pizza oven blended with the July heat.

Asked about its future, Poulin replies that it’s working on starting some culinary classes for next year and providing education on its farm to table approaches. And while there are no plans to add chickens immediately, he admits that “I’d welcome the opportunity.”

.