Debby Was A Vermont Windbag, But We Dodged A Huge Flood Bullet

Vermont mostly avoided flood damage from former
Tropical Storm Debby. Further west in New York,
some of the damage was extreme, such as in this
photo of Canisteo, New York. Photo by Bob
Lonsberry via Facebook.

 I was playing pick up sticks in my yard Saturday evening. 

There are so many small and medium sized branches down from those strong winds we had Friday evening from former Tropical Storm Debby. It's a project that probably will continue for days. 

Count myself very lucky, though. I have no damage.  And bonus: The gales knocked down a pretty good sized dead tree that I was planning on cutting down. Saved me work, and the dead tree didn't land on anything I care about. 

Meanwhile, more than 8,000 homes and businesses, almost all of them in northwestern Vermont, were still without power as of 7 a.m. this morning. That's 36 hours after the winds arrived. With all the trees and wires down, it's going to take awhile to fix everything. 

People are also dealing with homes with roof and other damage either from high winds or falling trees. Cars have been damaged or destroyed, too. Large trees are a real mess to clean up.

But notice I haven't mentioned flooding so far. 

Vermont really dodged a bullet on that one, given there were only a handful of reports of minor water damage here and there. No big deal at all.

That's awesome for us, as early forecast had us getting battered by inches and inches of rain. We braced for another flood disaster.

But, as forecasts became clear on Thursday, former Debby's path was taking a jog to the west. That meant the torrential rain would become somebody else's disaster.

Sadly, there were many thousands of somebody elses who dealt with flooding - in many cases catastrophic - from Sarasota, Florida to Montreal and the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, Canada. 

There were some impressive rainfall totals in Vermont, so I imagine there is some flood problems that haven't been reported in the media.  But nothing catastrophic. 

The rain in Vermont apparently stopped just in time, right before anything really bad happened. Elmore and Corinth, Vermont reported just under four inches of rain from former Debby. There were many, many Vermont reports of between two and three inches of rain. 

Head a little west into New York State, though, and things got seriously worse. In northwestern New York, North Lawrence reported 7.35 inches of rain. North Emeryville and Fort Covington, New York also saw more than seven inches of rain. There were many reports of four to six inches. Flooding got pretty bad in and near New York's St. Lawrence Valley. 

That flooding crossed the border in Quebec. Montreal has 6.18 inches of rain Friday, the wettest day in that city's history. The flooding in Quebec closed at least 100 roads, forced hundreds to evacuate and set off landslides in the Laurentians northeast of Montreal. 

The epicenter of the worst flooding was in southwestern New York and northern Pennsylvania. Video showed water roaring through a neighborhood in Canisteo, New York, uprooting trees and sheds. Other towns were devastated as well.  Small communities across northern Pennsylvania were inundated, reminiscent of the floods Vermont endured back in July.

Downtown Annapolis, Maryland was under as much as three feet of water from Debby's storm surge Friday. Down in Sarasota, Florida, close to a foot of rain swamped numerous neighborhoods. 

Vermonters dodged another bullet, too. Former Debby prompted tornado watches up and down the East Coast from Florida to Vermont. 

There ended up being close to three dozen tornadoes associated with Debby from Florida to the lower Hudson Valley in New York. Despite the tornado watch in the southern half of Vermont Friday, there were no twisters in the Green Mountain State. 

Now that Debby's gone, much quieter, though at times unsettled weather is moving into the Northeast for several days at least. No extreme are in the forecast for now. But give it time. I'm sure more trouble will brew soon enough.