by Paul Carnahan, VHS Librarian
The Times Argus, November 14, 2007

Eighty years ago this week Vermonters were cleaning up from one of the most devastating natural disasters to hit the area: the 1927 flood. Vermonters are usually on the lookout for flooding in the spring when melting snow swells the state’s rivers and streams, but this flood hit in the fall.

It had been a wet October that year. Rivers were swollen and the ground was saturated when a tropical storm pushing up the Atlantic Coast collided with a storm moving northeast out of New York State and dumped seven to nine inches of rain on the state over a period of three days, November 2, 3 and 4. In Montpelier the waters crested at 12 feet above street level on the morning of November 4; in Barre, seven people drowned including Lieutenant Governor Hollister Jackson; and in Waterbury twenty people died and water was 18 feet high on Main Street. The waters began to recede by November 7 and the extent of the damage began to be apparent. Though all of New England was affected, Vermont was devastated. The state was flooded from Newport to Bennington, with the Winooski River Valley the hardest hit. Eighty—five Vermonters died, 55 in the Winooski River basin alone, and 9,000 were left homeless. Property damage from the flood topped $30 million. In Montpelier the losses averaged to $400 for every man, woman, and child in the Capital City; Barre suffered $1.25 million worth of damage and granite operations remained closed for almost four months.

Montpelier was isolated from the rest of the world by impassable roads, washed out railroads, and downed communications lines. Although Governor John E. Weeks initially told the first U.S. Army Captain to reach Montpelier that “Vermont can take care of its own,” he later called President Calvin Coolidge and sought federal assistance. On November 17, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover surveyed the Winooski Valley accompanied by native—son U.S. Attorney General John G. Sargent. The visit eventually led to a $2.65 million dollar Congressional appropriation for the stricken state. Vermonters received loans from the Vermont Flood Credit Corporation and assistance from numerous private sources including the Red Cross.

The flood of 1927 changed the state forever. With much of its transportation infrastructure destroyed, Vermonters turned to rebuilding railroads, roads, and bridges, many of which are still in use today. The state centralized its authority over roads and borrowed money to make needed repairs, a departure from its previous “pay-as-you-go” fiscal policy. Vermonters, faced with a momentous disaster, looked outside its borders for assistance. The myth that Vermont had stood alone and faced the tragedy without help from others quickly developed after the flood, but in fact Vermont had been brought into the modern era by the natural disaster.