Vermont Edition

Vermont wakes up to severe flooding Tuesday morning

By Mikaela Lefrak,

Mitch Wertlieb, Andrea Laurion, Tedra Meyer

Published July 11, 2023 at 12:01 PM EDT

Flood waters completely cover a downtown intersection — A person uses a kayak to navigate downtown Montpelier Tuesday morning. City officials used an emergency health order to close the downtown until at least noon.

For the latest updates on the flooding, follow Vermont Public's live blog.

Vermont has just experienced the heaviest rainfall it’s seen since Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. Flooding has shut down entire communities. President Biden has approved federal emergency assistance to help the state respond. There have been more than 100 rescues so far. We hear from Barre’s city manager, Montpelier’s mayor, and Vermont Public climate and environment reporter Abagael Giles. The head of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association shares how flooding can affect heating oil tanks and how to stay safe.

Our guests:

Nicholas Storellicastro, manager of Barre City
Abagael Giles, Vermont Public reporter
Jack McCullough, mayor of Montpelier
Matt Cota, Vermont Fuel Dealers Association
Josh Crane, Vermont Public reporter
Anson Tebbetts, Vermont's Secretary of Agriculture
Anna Tempesta Noonan, president and COO, UVM Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center

Broadcast at noon Tuesday, July 11, 2023.

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Mikaela Lefrak

Mikaela Lefrak is the host and senior producer of Vermont Edition. Her stories have aired nationally on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Marketplace, The World and Here & Now. A seasoned local reporter, Mikaela has won two regional Edward R. Murrow awards and a Public Media Journalists Association award for her work.

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Mitch Wertlieb

A graduate of NYU with a Master's Degree in journalism, Mitch has more than 20 years experience in radio news. He got his start as news director at NYU's college station, and moved on to a news director (and part-time DJ position) for commercial radio station WMVY on Martha's Vineyard. But public radio was where Mitch wanted to be and he eventually moved on to Boston where he worked for six years in a number of different capacities at member station WBUR...as a Senior Producer, Editor, and fill-in co-host of the nationally distributed Here and Now. Mitch has been a guest host of the national NPR sports program "Only A Game". He's also worked as an editor and producer for international news coverage with Monitor Radio in Boston.

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Andrea Laurion

Andrea Laurion joined Vermont Public as a news producer for Vermont Edition in December 2022. She is a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., and a graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine. Before getting into audio, Andrea worked as an obituary writer, a lunch lady, a wedding photographer assistant, a children’s birthday party hostess, a haunted house actor, and an admin assistant many times over.

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Tedra Meyer

Tedra worked on Vermont Edition as a producer and editor from 2022 to 2024.

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