Middlebury businesses navigate flash flooding

MIDDLEBURY — In recent weeks, Elise Haydon thought Middlebury had mostly dodged the flooding that other parts of Vermont experienced this summer.

The executive director of Yellow House Community, a residential facility for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, had seen plenty of emails about flood relief in the last few weeks.

“We don’t need that,” she recalled thinking.

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That changed on Thursday night. Staff members at Yellow House first called Haydon in the early evening when it began to rain, reporting that the basement of one of its Seminary Street buildings was taking on water. The facility moved some residents from one building to another.

Later that night, one basement had filled with about seven feet of water, Haydon said. Two staff and the five residents of the facility evacuated. Residents were all able to stay with family, according to Haydon.

Haydon said a catch basin behind the building was overwhelmed by water running off of a hillside behind the building. The water pushed up from underneath the building and broke a cement floor, she said.

In addition to staff, volunteers joined in to help clear the basement on Friday morning. One woman dropped by with sandwiches as Haydon worked to hose mud from items pulled from the flooded basement.

“I think for this population we support, something like this could be really dramatic and devastating and the awesome thing is that our team has just really come together to support them,” Haydon said.

Ryan Emilio, operations manager for the Marble Works business district — several blocks to the west of Yellow House — said he first started seeing worrisome social media posts on Thursday in the early evening. It was a challenge to get into town from his home in Salisbury, but he eventually made it.

“And then when I got here, the whole north side of the property was underwater,” Emilio said. The Marble Works is home to about two dozen businesses and Emilio estimated that about 11 took on water.

Barbara Harding, owner of Otter Creek Used Books in Marbleworks, said the storm runoff came in through her front door and soaked some carpeting and a pile of books. A few doors down at massage studio Finding Light Wellness, Gina Gaiotti had two fans and a shop vac running in an effort to dry out the floor of her shop.

Several businesses had shut down for the day to deal with the water. Emilio was driving around on a utility vehicle distributing fans, dehumidifiers and carpet extractors.

“The day has just been getting people dry to prevent the mold and mildew,” Emilio said.

Nearby, an underpass on Seymour Street in Middlebury, over which the train tracks run, filled up with about 11 feet of water, according to an estimate from David Shaw, chief of the Middlebury Fire Department.

Adjacent to the underpass, and about 30 feet higher, sits the auto shop County Tire Center. Steve Dupoise, who owns the shop with his wife, was in Colchester on Thursday afternoon when he learned that water was filling up his showroom.

His friend, who was reporting the damage to Dupoise over the phone in the midst of having dinner across the street at the restaurant Fire & Ice, trudged back and forth from the restaurant through water up to his knees.

Dupoise arrived back at the shop at 7:30 p.m. to find the water still deep. Friends and family came to help clean, and by the time he left at 10:15 p.m., the underpass was empty and the water in his shop had receded.

He said his shop didn’t sustain significant damage, although he’ll need to replace some sheetrock and carpets.

“I was able to open up this morning. We’re doing business,” he said. “You know, I’ve had a lot of phone calls from family and friends, a lot of volunteers have asked. But, you know, there’s way worse than us, to be honest with you.”

Businesses on Main Street in Middlebury — a short walk from County Tire Center — appear to have been largely spared from the impacts of the flood. Narender Kaur, manager of Taste of India, said the restaurant did not take on water, and Becky Dayton, who owns the Vermont Book Shop, said the same of her store.

Mad Taco, a restaurant located in the Stone Mill building on the edge of the Otter Creek, sustained some damage and will be closed for the next several days, according to Stacey Rainey, a co-owner of the Stone Mill. The water didn’t overflow the banks of the creek; the store flooded from the flash flooding created by all of the rain.

“It was just too much water that came all at once,” Rainey said.

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