A year to the day after the devastating floods of July 10, 2023, Vermont was hit hard again. The remnants of Hurricane Beryl, the earliest category 5 hurricane ever recorded, met a stalled warm front to deliver a band of tropical, torrential rain that dumped up to seven inches across parts of the state in just about twelve hours.

This July, the damage was far less widespread than last, but in a few of the bad spots, it was just as bad. Barre, which sits right next to the capital, Montpelier, and was flooded badly last year—but is generally poorer and thus received less attention—was flooded for several hours, leaving a nice thick mess of silt and mud on the streets and requiring a boil-water advisory for the city water system. Plainfield, a few miles up the Winooski River, suffered considerably worse damage than last year, where an apartment building known as the Heartbreak Hotel fell into the river. Farther east, in the town of Peacham, a thirty-three-year-old man died when his UTV was swept away by floodwater.

Other bad spots are too numerous to list, and probably too regional to mean much to people who haven’t spent time here. The Mad River flooded in Moretown; I received a VT-Alert at 1:06 AM announcing that the village was being evacuated. The Winooski flooded in Richmond—again, the photos eerily similar to those exactly one year earlier. The urban farms of Burlington’s intervale—the first place I ever farmed, where one farmer told stories about harvesting by canoe during the 2011 inundations from Hurricane Irene—were flooded for the second year in a row (and the canoes were back), likely catastrophically ruining yet another farm season that had barely begun.

This comes amid what will almost certainly be the hottest summer on record up here, where those inches of rain provided no reprieve from another long bout of persistent and oppressive humidity that is making northern New England miserable. The flooding also hits the state with perhaps the second-highest homelessness rate in the country, a crisis this disaster is bound to worsen again.

For people outside Vermont this latest episode may be of minimal interest—another climate-worsened event to briefly absorb, then forget. No dramatic pictures of people kayaking by the state capitol this time. The damage didn’t even warrant a mention the following morning on the New York Times’ home page, which barely found room to note the impacts of Beryl’s initial landfall and the overwhelmed Houston healthcare system, the inevitable product of one more American city that is becoming functionally uninhabitable when the power grid goes down.

But people should pay attention. Because the destruction up here is a reminder of the illusion of the “climate refuge,” just as Biden’s incapacity and the obvious stakes of this election should not delude us that we’re seriously voting for a livable planet or not; the critical decisions about “livability” were made decades ago, and the extreme heat we’re living is well baked into the present and future.

Catastrophic climate change is here, from Europe to India to Greece to New Mexico to supposedly resilient New England. “Green” technology is not going to get us out of this mess, and the Democrats, whichever Democrat, certainly won’t either. Organizing, degrowth, mutual aid and solidarity, and a renewed ecological consciousness—these are some of the only things that might help.

JEFFERSONVILLE, Vt. (WCAX) – It’s bottling day at Smugglers’ Notch Distillery, with vodka on the production line. Vodka is the legacy liquor of this Jeffersonville operation, and the first spirit owner Jeremy Elliott ever made after jumping from a career in pharmaceutical science.

“My mind works very well with science… chemistry,” Elliott explains. “What could I do with my skill set that I currently had?”

When his old job announced they were closing up shop, he was determined to find a way to stay in Vermont while using his science skills. Turns out, alcohol was the answer.

“My goal was to make the world’s best vodka,” Elliott says.

An ambitious goal, but one that he was determined to make happen. In 2006, he started learning the ropes of distilling, bouncing around the country to learn the trade. Shortly after, he opened up Smugglers’ Notch Distillery with his dad, Ron.

“And in 2010 we were rated 95 in the Wine Enthusiast, Double Gold World Spirits Competition… so we have the highest-rated domestic vodka still to this day in the United States,” he says.

Now, his 12 other products follow closely behind. The lineup includes rum, bourbon, whiskey, and even canned vodka cocktails. Many of them are made in their Jeffersonville distillery. The success, Elliott says, is a science. Each product goes through extensive research and development before hitting shelves.

“It’s very important that when I got to market with one of my products that it is the best it can be,” he explains.

The proof is in the performance. With a staff of 28 people, Elliott estimates these products reach 100,000 customers per year. They’re available at liquor stores throughout the Northeast, or at their six tasting rooms in Vermont.

“When people come in to visit us and they get to sample our products and take some home, they have a story that goes home with them. What we’re selling is not only spirits, but the whole Vermont experience,” he says.

Bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup sits next to the stiff drinks in their Jeffersonville tasting room, stocked next to their stiff drinks. They work closely with local producers to stock that and make their other maple mixtures.

“I have a maple bourbon, I have a maple cream liquor, I have a bourbon maple cream liquor and I have a maple gin,” Elliott says.

But the real benefit of stopping into a tasting room, aside from the experience and selection, is the education. Teaching customers about what’s in their cocktails is something Elliott is passionate about… quite a pivot from pharmaceutical science, but one that’s certainly neat.

“This journey has been wild but it’s been so gratifying as well,” Elliott says with a smile.

Copyright 2024 WCAX. All rights reserved.

SANDGATE, Vt. (WCAX) – Police say a Vermont teen was seriously injured when she was run over by a Jeep with no one behind the wheel.

It happened Monday at about 7:30 a.m. on SE Corners Road in Sandgate.

Vermont State Police Austin Carrier, 20, of Sandgate, was driving a white 2001 Jeep Cherokee, towing a green 1994 Jeep Cherokee with a chain. Jalen Davis, 18, of Bennington, was steering the green Jeep.

Investigators say as the white Jeep started to go up a hill, the driveshaft broke and both Jeeps began rolling backward. They say both Carrier and Davis jumped out of the Jeeps they were in.

But troopers say when Davis jumped out of the green Jeep, she tripped and fell, and was run over by the white Jeep.

Police say Davis was airlifted to the Albany Medical Center with serious injuries. We don’t know the extent of her injuries or her condition.

Police say the incident and the filing of any possible charges are still under investigation.

Copyright 2024 WCAX. All rights reserved.