Flood of 1992
March 11, 1992
The following is excerpted from: Ice & Water: The Flood of 1992 - Montpelier,
Vermont, Copyright © 1992 "Ice and Water" Committee*
Click on picture to see a comparision with non-flood conditions.
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As March 11, 1992 dawned, Vermont entered the fourth consecutive day of an early
spring thaw and police in the state capital kept a watchful eye on the city's
rivers. The North Branch was high and the Winooski was brimful of snowmelt and
rain and chocked with floating chunks of thick winter ice.
Minor spring flooding and ice jams had been a way of life throughout Montpelier's
two centuries of history, and no one had an inkling this day was destined to be
unusual. But at about 7 a.m., the groaning river of ice in the Winooski river
shuddered to a momentous stop just downstream of the Bailey Avenue Bridge. The
ice had jammed, shutting the door on the river as decisively as the closing of
a bank vault. With nowhere to go, the Winooski backed up, pouring calamitously
over its banks into the heart of Montpelier.
In less than an hour, the two swollen rivers effectively shut down 120 businesses,
left more than 50 residents homeless, threw the workings of much of state government
into disarray, and caused upwards of $5 million in damage. Miraculously, there
was no loss of life, but the lifeblood of Montpelier's historic downtown was devastated
by the second great flood to strike the city in this century.
The 1992 event was very different from its predecessor nearly 65 years ago. The
famous November, 1927 flood followed three days of torrential rains, and the destruction
and death it caused -- nearly 100 Vermonters lost their lives -- were felt statewide.
This time, except for a few other areas of localized river flooding, the damage
was concentrated in Montpelier. And this time, it came with almost no advance
warning.
Montpelier Police Chief Douglas Hoyt was probably the first to have a sense that
disaster was about the strike. Alerted at 6:51 a.m. to a report of minor flooding
on Barre Street, he rushed downtown and reached the intersection of State and
Elm by the historic Garage building about 7 a.m. What he saw alarmed him: Water
was already rising into the parking area behind State Street. Driving to the Bailey
Avenue Bridge, he encountered a bleak and foreboding spectacle of "broken
ice for as far as you could see." It was not moving, and Hoyt knew then that
the city was in for trouble.
The swiftness with which the flood struck will remain its most enduring memory
for many victims. In just a few minutes, city streets were inundated and impassable.
Cars stalled in the road, basement windows and doors blew out from the pressure,
and propane tanks ripped free of their moorings, spewing explosive vapors. Ice
floes three feet thick sashayed through town. With their bridges, side streets
like Langdon and School suddenly resembled canals, the oddly scenic sight masking
the destruction occurring in basements and ground floors of Montpelier's historic
buildings.
* "Ice and Water" Committee : Janice Abair, Paul Carnahan, Alan Grigsby,
Ron Kowalkowski, Irene Racz (chairperson), John Savage, Tom Slayton, and Ron Wild.
Updated September 26, 2005
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