Helicopters rush food, water to Vermont towns cut off by Irene’s floodwaters; ‘We need help’
Up to 11 inches of rain from the weekend storm turned placid streams into churning, brown torrents that knocked homes off their foundations, flattened trees and took giant bites out of the asphalt across the countryside. At least three people died in Vermont. “I think that people are still a little shell-shocked right now. There’s just a lot of disbelief on people’s faces. It came through so quickly, and there’s so much damage,” Gail Devine, director of the Woodstock Recreation Center, said as volunteers moved furniture out of the flooded basement and shoveled out thick mud that filled the center’s two swimming pools.As crews raced to repair the roads, the National Guard began flying in supplies <a href="http://www.cheapghdstraighteners-sales.com/ghd-mk4-black-hair-straightener-p-32.html"><strong>ghd salon styler</strong></a> to the towns of Cavendish, Granville, Hancock, Killington-Mendon, Marlboro, Pittsfield, Plymouth, Rochester, Stockbridge, Strafford, Stratton and Wardsboro. The Guard also used heavy-duty vehicles to bring relief to flood-stricken communities still reachable by road.The cut-off towns ranged in population from under 200 (Stratton) to nearly 1,400 (Cavendish). “If it’s a life-and-death situation, where someone needs to be Medevac-ed or taken to a hospital, we would get a helicopter there to airlift them out, if we could get close to them. A lot of these areas are mountainous areas where there may not be a place to land,” said Mark Bosma, a spokesman for Vermont Emergency Management.There were no immediate reports of anyone in dire condition being rescued by helicopter.But it took a relay operation involving two ambulances and an all-terrain vehicle to take a Killington woman in <a href="http://www.cheapghdstraighteners-sales.com/ghd-2010-new-green-envy-p-47.html"><strong>ghd rare</strong></a> respiratory distress to a hospital in Rutland, about 13 miles away, after floodwaters severed the road between the two communities, Rutland Regional Medical Center President Tom Hubner said. The patient, whose name was not released, was doing fine, he said.In Rochester, where telephones were out and damage was severe, people could be seen from helicopters standing in line outside a grocery store. McKinley said the town’s restaurants and a supermarket were giving food away rather than let it spoil, and townspeople were helping each other. “We’ve been fine so far. The worst part is not being able to communicate with the rest of the state and know when people are coming in,” he said.He said government agencies did a good job of warning people about the storm. “But here in Vermont, I <a href="http://www.nfljerseys-network.com/"><strong>Troy Polamalu jerseys</strong></a> think we just didn’t expect it and didn’t prepare for it,” he said. “I thought, how could it happen here?”Wendy Pratt, another of the few townspeople able to communicate with the outside world, posted an update on Facebook using a generator and a satellite Internet connection. She sketched a picture of both devastation and New England neighborliness.
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