Wrap Up message
William Fraser
Thank you, too, for all of you who took this matter seriously and took affirmative steps to protect yourselves, your properties, your families, your employees, your inventories. I know this was nerve wracking and inconvenient.
There will be some more formal warp up later but I wanted to offer some closing comments right now.
1 - A lot of work was done by the community and it was not a waste of time and effort. People may or may not have realized just how close a call we had last week. According to our experts, another six inch rise in the river last Thursday (the 15th) would have most likely caused a real problem. The upsteram ice was startng to break up and just a little more river rise would have sent thick, strong ice into a still stable freeze up jam. And following that, if the March 17th snow storm had been rain we'd have had a real problem as well. This threat was very real.
2 - We had bad luck with the weather in January which created the situation but got pretty much a perfect melt out weather scenario the last two weeks (except for the 14th/15th scare). There's no question that different weather would have produced drastically different results.
3 - Its hard to say whether the city's efforts on the river prevented a big jam or flood yesterday but I can say from witnessing it first hand that the dusting helped weaken the ice significantly which allowed the broken up ice pack to plow right through. The open flowing channels created by the sewer effluent and crane then pulled the ice pack directly into the wide open water beyond. It was not out of the question that a jam could have occured at cemetery curve given the huge volume of ice that had accumulated by then.
4 - The city, Vermont Emergency Management, CRREL and other involved agencies have already scheduled a meeting for next week for debriefing, lessons learned and consideration of what can be done next in terms of risk reduction, mitigation, prevention etc.
5 - We will consider all strategies to reduce risk in future occurences. I caution though, that the very essence of this problem is water freezing in a cold climate. Add to that a shallow, extremely flat stretch of river with a built up city around it essentially using all of its natural flood plain. We may come up with a lot of good ideas but its safe to say that we will not be able to prevent the river from freezing. Therefore its also important to stay on top of response and protection, not unlike areas prone to hurricanes - many of which blow out to sea through no efforts of their local or state governments - or for that matter major snow storms or ice storms. We have no way of knowiing whether the frazil ice freeze up obstruction was a unique bizarre occurence this winter of a sign of things to come in the future.
6 - Sandbags - the city, with assistance from the department of corrections, will begin picking up sandbags this week - probably by Wednesday. People who want to move sandbags earlier can simply return them to the city hall plaza where you got them and we'll take them from there. People are also welcome to keep the sandbags if they'd like to save them for future use. The green sand bags are designed to last a long time and can be stock piled. The brown/white sand bags are made of a different material and will deteriorate and are not meant for long term use or future stockpiling.
7 - Thank yous. First thank you to all of you for your suggestions, ideas, comments and encouragement. We never lost sight of the fact that any work we were doing was for your behalf.
I would like people in Montpelier to realize exacly how many different people and agencies were actively involved in this effort. I thank them all and apologize in advance to any group I inadvertently leave out.
Vermont Emergency Management Agency (VEMA)- Director Barbara Farr took the bull by the horns and got all the important state agencies working together on this. Its been a true pleasure to work with her. Public Information Officer Mark Bosma cranked out regular press releases to keep everyone informed. Barb and Mark were on every conference call with us whether it was 4 AM, 10 PM or whenever. Ray Doherty worked his tail off to get our grant application into FEMA on time for more vanes in the river as one strategy to reduce risk.
Cold Regions Resarch and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) - A division of the Army Corps of Engineers, these people are the leading ice experts in the country. Fortunately for us they are based in Hanover, NH. They made many trips up here, set up our new river gauges, did aerial surveillance and gave us daily advice, usually several time per day. They came up and trained our employees in how to "read" ice and intepret information. We got particular help from Kate White who was on all our conference calls no watter what time fo day or day of the week. She even arrived in person yesterday to observe and advise us during the final break up. Andy Tuthill and Chris Williams were also very helpful to us.
National Weather Service - since the weather was the key variable, their information was essential. Any planning we did was based on the weather info they gave us. And they were extremely accurate. Greg Hanson and crew were in on every call at all hours of the day and night.
The National Guard - under the direction of Colonel Chris Bishop, 20 or so guard members came to Montpelier and effieciently filled and delivered 5.665 sand bags for community use. Many people were here away from their normal place of employment and/or their families working on the city's behalf.
US Geological Service (USGS) - installed a new river gauge on Langdon St. Monitored river flows and volumes, also made most if not all conference calls. Special thanks to John Denner.
Agency of Natural Resources, River Division - Bary Cahoon and Pat Ross. Provided incredible river knowledge, got permits approved in a day for the sewer effluent and river dusting. Pat was up all night with us on the 14th & 15th taking ice readings and was on most of the phone calls.
Montpelier Downtown Community Association - Suzanne Hechmer organized the volunteer sandbagging effort and worked tirelessly to communicate with the downtown merchants about what was going on.
State of Vermont - Deputy Administration Secretary Mike Bertrand took this issue to heart. He attended every meeting, made every phone call and kept an open line of communication with the Governor's office and all state agencies.
FEMA, the Corps of Engineers and our Congressional Offices also had staff involved on a regular basis.
The Montpelier Police, Public Works and Fire departments worked round the clock watching the river, making ideas work. DPW got the dusting operation and the effluent pumping operation running within a week. I need to offer personal thanks to Chief Doug Hoyt, DPW Director Todd Law and Fire Chief Ges Schneider. The four of us have spent a lot of time together at all hours of the day and night watching ice melt.
All the city employees really rallied to the cause. Between preparing information, answering questions, making contacts with people and keeping other city business flowing. I thank Planning Director Gwen Hallsmith for coming up with the idea of thise Google groups. What a great way to communicate regularly with over 1,000 interested people.
Community groups, especially the Red Cross, really stepped up. We also thank our potential shelter providers Vermont College and National Life.
We also appreciate the many people who stopped some of us in the street to offer words of encouragement or appreciation. It really means a lot and helps.
Finally I'd like to thank my family who have put up with a lot of uncertainty and stress. My poor children have become deputized river and ice watchers despite their claim that it is "boring". My wife has been extremely supportive and understanding, even when she's been getting quizzed by people about whether there will be a flood or not.
As the ice was flowing out under the interstate bridge last evening, my 9 year old daughter jumped onto the roof of my car, threw her arms high into the air and screamed "NO FLOOD, NO FLOOD, NO FLOOD" It kind of summed it up for all of us.