GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Just a reminder: There'll be no Daybreak next week, or on Monday and Tuesday of the following week. The Vordle will continue throughout (with words that aren't from Daybreak), so if you haven't already signed up for the weekend reminder and would like to get one each day from 7/15-25, sign up here.Okay, let's get to it:First off, there's still a slight chance of showers this morning. Plus a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms later this afternoon. Mostly though, things will start out cloudy and get sunnier fairly quickly, hard as that might be to believe. Highs in the low or mid 80s, winds from the west, low 60s tonight.Photo roundup. As you can imagine, there's a lot out there.
Here's a video of the White River in S. Royalton yesterday morning, from Jenn Megyesi;
Views of Blood Brook in Norwich: video from the bridge at Moore Lane by Jonathan Frishtick; and the brook taking over Beaver Meadow Road late yesterday afternoon, from Michael Simpson.
And VT Emergency Management put up this video of the Ottauquechee from opposite Simon Pearce yesterday morning;
While a Reddit user got this footage of the river from the Simon Pearce deck;
Users on the Upper Valley VT/NH Facebook group have been posting photos and video from around the region. You'll have to be a member, but it's got almost 24,000 members, so odds are decent you're one;
Posters to the Reddit page r/vermont have filled it with photos and videos from all over the state;
Though that didn't stop one 16-year-old from doing a "graceful" backflip off a railroad trestle in WRJ into the flotsam-laced river below, writes Eric Francis for Daybreak. In a regional roundup, Eric reports multiple rescues of residents whose homes and trailers were suddenly cut off by creeks, the Ottauquechee's waters again inundating spots in Quechee and Woodstock, more roads than you can count being closed around the region, and bridges—including the temporary bridge over the White in Hartford Village and Bridge 11 on Route 113 in Vershire—washing out.
Thetford residents along Route 132 were asked to evacuate yesterday evening "because culverts were failing and beginning to overrun with water from the Ompompanoosuc River," report Patrick Adrian, Alex Hanson, and Liz Sauchelli in the
Valley News
. They gather reports from around the region, including the closure of three covered bridges in Woodstock, the evacuation of the Riverside Mobile Home Park there, concerns about the Woodstock Farmers Market, flooding in Bethel and along Route 14 in SoRo—including, once again, at Hurricane Flats Farm, which was inundated by Irene—and road washouts in Enfield, Canaan, Grafton, and Sunapee. Amtrak service was halted north of Springfield, MA.
On his OmniReporter blog, Gareth Henderson reports that all Woodstock Aqueduct customers are being asked to boil their water for at least 60 seconds, due to flooding that's affected water mains.
, the
NYT
has a continuously updated page. Gift link, no paywall. There's some hair-raising footage out there.
The rivers remain high. The best way to see what's going on is to go to the National Weather Service's Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service—which shows both actual and, in some cases, predicted flows for river gauges around the region.
As of early this morning, the White in W. Hartord was back below flood stage, after cresting at 18.87 feet yesterday, just below moderate flood stage;
The Connecticut in West Leb hit nearly 23 feet overnight, almost a foot above minor flood stage, and is receding now;
The Sugar River in Claremont appears to be cresting now at 8.42 feet, just short of moderate flood stage;
The Williams River in Rockingham is back below flood stage after hitting 16 feet yesterday evening, well into major flood stage.
At the link you can also check out the water levels at the Union Village Dam (high enough to close Buzzell's Bridge Road, since parts are under water; hiking trails at the dam are closed, too) and the North Hartland Dam, which at the moment is at 109 feet; the spillway is at 150 feet. To see what's going on, just hover your cursur over any point on the map, or click into it for more detail.
You can also get a bird's-eye view of river and dam status around New England from the Army Corps of Engineers. At the link, hit the "River Status" or "Forecast Status" tabs just below the map. (Thanks, JT!)And if you're headed out on the roads, you'll want to double-check before you go.
First place, of course, is New England 511, which will give you a sense of the highways and state roads. As of this morning, there are closures pretty much everywhere you look. VT 14 has been hit especially hard, but there are closures all over both states, including Route 10 in Croydon and stretches of Route 4 west of Woodstock.
Still, it doesn't capture smaller roads town by town. In addition to the reports tallied in the Valley News story linked to above, the best thing to do is to check out the listservs, the Upper Valley Road Conditions/Closings and Business Closings FB group (if you're a member) or police department Facebook pages. Several roads in Vershire are closed, there were washouts in Quechee, and roads have been closed by brook flooding in Norwich, West Fairlee, Thetford, Vershire, Corinth, Topsham, Bradford, and elsewhere.
, NHDOT will be closing left lanes on I-89 near the bridge over the Connecticut starting at 4:30 am tomorrow. The north- and southbound left-lane closures will allow contractors to place concrete on the median bridge deck currently under construction. The agency's press release says things should reopen by about 3:30 pm.
In fact, reports
VTDigger
editor Paul Heintz, rain totals in southern VT exceeded amounts seen during Irene, and towns around the state recorded amounts ranging from near 7 inches in Vershire to over 9 inches in Plymouth.
VTDigger
sent its reporters and editors out yesterday to capture as much as they could, and at the link you'll find reports including one from Maggie Cassidy in Hartford Village (piers for the new bridge over the White were due to be poured there this week, but no longer); Erin Petenko and Fred Thys reporting last night from Montpelier, where downtown is closed until at least noon today after streets flooded to the first floor of buildings; Heintz's story from Waterbury, where officials were forced to evacuate Vermont's emergency operations center; and Kevin O'Connor and Ethan Weinstein in Ludlow, where the area around Okemo took it in the chin (
, and then
).
This week, Oak Hill Music Festival returns to the Upper Valley with another season of concerts and free community events. Experience Vivaldi’s
Four Seasons
, Borodin, Mahler, Gershwin, Barber, and a diverse lineup of other masterworks with influences from around the globe. Wednesday, July 12 and Friday, July 14 at 7:00 pm at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon, and Saturday, July 15 at 7:00 pm at the Norwich Congregational Church. Tickets
or at the link.
Sponsored by Oak Hill Music Festival.
Hey, it's not
all
about the storms out there. Beavers get some credit, too, writes
Northern Woodlands
' Elise Tillinghast. Here we are in the second week of July and they're patching dam sites with mud, while common milkweed is drawing insects—the rain-hardy ones now, butterflies once the skies clear; cicada nymphs are emerging; and you can keep an eye out (between storms) for crescent butterflies.
Here's a thought for an upcoming salad: roasted maple seeds. As you know, they fall in winged pairs, known as samaras (okay, that part I didn't know). And in her latest Naturally Curious post, Mary Holland writes that the seeds—which have been clocked falling at 3 mph—are all edible (by birds, chipmunks, foxes, us, and other mammals) and loaded with protein and carbs. Red and silver maple seeds, she writes, "mature early and are fully ripe now. The seeds of other species of maples, including Sugar Maple, Striped Maple and Box Elder, will mature in early autumn."A dress that draws strength from the community that created it. That, at least in part, is part of the power of the Red Dress, writes Susan Apel in her review of the dress, now on display at the Southern VT Arts Center in Manchester. Originally a solo project of its creator, Kirstie Macleod, the dress ultimately took shape with embroidered panels from 375 contributors in 51 countries. Beautiful in its own right, Susan reports, it also "challenges traditional notions of art as the product of a single artist and suggests the strength—politically and aesthetically—of communal creation."National nonprofit to take over many of Maine's local news outlets. In a deal for an undisclosed amount, reports the Portland Press Herald's Rachel Ohm, the National Trust for Local News will buy five of the state's six daily newspapers—including the Press Herald and the Kennebec Journal—and 17 weekly papers in southern and western Maine. “This is the most independent route I think I could have taken that maintains both the independence of the press and continuity for staff and readers,” says Reade Brower, owner of Masthead Maine, which currenly owns the papers.“Their stuff is affordable, it’s beautiful—it ticks all the boxes.” Literally ticks the boxes. In Smithsonian, Danny Freedman writes about one of the few remaining pencil manufacturers in the US. Musgrave has been making pencils since 1923, in Shelbyville, TN, a town that once hosted multiple factories because of its easy access to Eastern red cedar. Musgrave’s 100 employees turn out 72 million pencils a year (vs. 3.7 billion imported from overseas). Freedman sketches the pencil’s history and how Musgrave is positioning itself to compete with imports by selling customized versions directly to consumers. “World’s smallest billboard,” says the company’s president, Scott Johnson.The Tuesday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
As you might imagine, you'll want to double-check before you go.
This evening at 6:30, bear expert Ben Kilham will be at the Howe Library in Hanover to talk about how black bears are rescued, raised, and then released back into the wild. Both in-person and online.
Also at 6:30, the West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts brings in the Garifuna Collective, the Belize-based musical group that came together around the making of Andy Palacio's hit 2007 album, Wátina. The group is on a tour of New England. Tonight they'll be indoors at Union Church in Claremont—if you can't make it there, they're scheduled for the Dartmouth Green Thursday night, thanks to the Hop.
And also at 6:30, Fairlee's Community Music Series presents rockers and dance band Wyld Nightz on the town common.
And the Tuesday poem.
This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best,Night, sleep, death and the stars.— "A Clear Midnight" by Walt Whitman
The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.
The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers, writers, and librarians who think you should read. this. book. now!
Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.
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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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