Goodnight, Irene.

8-28-11 VERMONT: Irene seems to be disappearing over the northern horizon and not a moment too soon. It started raining late last night with some gusty winds, but it has been a rain event with, at most, minor wind problems. We have not lost phone service at all and the electricity was out for only a moment or two. That has not been our usual experience here.

About four o’clock neighbors from down the hill stopped by to say that the road had washed out. At that time the rain had stopped, and the winds were calm, perhaps we were in the eye. We all put on foul weather gear and went to look. The roadside ditches were roaring and water was pouring down the embankments into the road. Where Lord Brook usually meanders under the road through a culvert, an eight foot in diameter culvert, there was standing water pouring off the down-stream side in a vigorous waterfall and an impressive whirlpool on the up-stream side. The whirlpool was water still going down the culvert at maximum capacity. At 8 ft. in diameter the culvert has an area of 50 sq.ft. The water was traversing the fifty foot length in about a second for a velocity of 50 ft/sec and a flow of 2500 cu ft/sec, [area x velocity] not counting the water flowing over the culvert. That CFS is probably 100 times normal flow.

On the way home, I checked the rain gauge. The top measure is 5 inches and it had about a quarter inch over that. By the time we got inside the rain had started again. At 9:30 PM we still have light rain and more gusty wind even though the radar shows it to be gone.


Storm Trackers.

New Boston Rd. has become New Boston waterfall. You can see the overwhelmed culvert pipe ridges which is usually three feet below the road surface.

This whirlpool is the water that is still going down the culvert.

New Boston pond.