Second Death Confirmed In July Vermont Flood

Hiker Robert Kerker, 67, of Rhinebeck, NY is the
second confirmed death from July's floods in 
Vermont. Photo via Vermont State Police. 

 A hiker caught in Vermont's severe flooding on July 10-11 is the second confirmed death from the state's disaster.  

Robert Kerker, 67, of Rhinebeck, New York was hiking the Appalachian Trail when the storm hit. 

Per VTDigger, quoting Vermont State Police :

"Kerker..... had last been seen July 9 at the Inn at Long Trail in Killington. He had subsequently been spotted that night at the Stony Brook Shelter, just east of the inn on the Appalachian Trail"

The witness who saw Kerker near Stony Brook promoted police to search that area. 

"The witness said severe rain and flooding that struck Vermont starting July 10 had elevated water levels on the Stony Brook and made the trail's crossing of the stream dangerous...Mr. Kerker is not known to have been seen again following that encounter." said Vermont State Police.

 Police last Friday found Kerker's body near Stony Brook, about 1.5 miles downstream from where the Appalachian Trail crosses it. 

His family said Kerker was overdue for a check in and was supposed to book himself  into the Norwich Inn in Norwich on July 14, but never did. 

Kerker was an experienced hiker who was known on the Appalachian Trail as "Steady Eddie."

Another death from the flood was reported shortly after the water receded in mid-July. A 63-year-old man drowned in the flooded basement of his Barre home. 

A  third death associated with high water in the wake of the flood probably won't be regarded as a disaster-related death, VTDigger reported.

A 25-year old Burlington woman slipped and fell into the Huntington River at Huntington Gorge in Richmond on July 14. The river was swollen from the effects of the July 10-11 flood and renewed heavy rain on July 13.

As terrible as these deaths are, the toll is still smaller than the fatalities from the similarly destructive floods from Tropical Storm Irene, which claimed seven Vermont lives. 

The only other weather disaster in Vermont that I'm aware of in recent years that killed more than one person was a July, 2018 heat wave that caused four fatalities in the Green Mountain State. That same heat wave killed dozens of people in Quebec.