The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-07-11
West River Valley Towns
Also Suffer from Effects
of Heavy Showers Over
the Weekend = Damage
Will Run into Thousands
WOMAN CAUGHT BY
ahe FLOOD OF WATER
Takes Off Stockings and
Shoes and Calmly Wades
to Land When Car Is Sur
rounded - Both Roads to
West Dummerston Were
Washed Out Yesterday
Noon

Noon a..4a
Cloudbufsts Saturday and Sunday in
Windham county and across the Con-
necticut river in Cheshire county. New
Hampshire, caused damage which viii
mount up into many thousands of dol
lars, although it is impossible to estimate
the damage with any degree of accuracy.
Following the exceptionally severe thun-
der storm of Saturday morning there
were storms in several of the surrounding
towns during the day Yesterday fore
noon between II and II o'clock a down
pour caused much damage in Chester
field, but the storm area did not extend
to Sp0fford lake. Between II and 1
o'clock in the afternoon Brattleboro was
again visited and both roads to West
Dummerston suffered severely Further
damage was caused last night in a storm
of which Brattleboro and the nearby
towns were the center. The rainfall in
this village yesterday was more than
twice as great as the record for Friday
which included the heavy storm after
midnight Saturday morning
Records made by F. r. Vaughan for
Friday, including Saturday morning.
showed .63 of an inch. From Saturday
morning to Sunday morning the rainfall
was "a of an inch. and from Sunday
morning to this morning the rainfall
record was 1.35 inches.
The most serious damage seems to have
occurred in the West River valley. where
snI
out. South of Brattleboro the storm yes
terday was light as compared with that
here and farther north, the rainfall in
South Vernon being but little. In most
of the towns the road commissioners and
their men worked hard Saturday and
Sunday. but damage occurred faster than
they could repair it.
Not only was travel impossible in many
places because of roads being quilted,
but in many places the highways were
under water to the depth of several
inches, and many automobile parties
| found themselves in situations from
which they could not extricate themselves
without assistance. A number of cars
were abandoned until today.
On account of the federal road project
| between the Brattleboro and Putney
town lines a detour had been established
| between the johnson place north of the
| Crosby pond up over West hin in Put
ney, coming back into the Westminster
West road near the cemetery north of
Putmey village. This detour was quilted
badly in many places although it was
of men We're making repairs on it this
forenoon.
The federal road was not closed to
traffic. and many automobile parties ven
tured over the new highway, only to get
stuck in the clay soil near Canoe brook
in Dummerston. They expressed no lit
tie Indignation because of the fact that
the road was not completely closed.
During the heavy shower of yesterday
noon food of water from the hills of
the Retreat estate tore into the high
way near the Kane pine and demolished
Il section of road nearly 200 feet in
length. In places the washout was more
than six feet deep and tons of cobbles and
sand were spread over the meadow adj
joining the Wilson Brown place. At
the same time the culyert near the John
Nivier place on the lower West river
road gave way before the flood of wa
ter, so that for several hours yesterday
afternoon communication between Brat
tleboro and the West river valley was
broken Early last evening a temporary
plank bridge was laid over the Nivier
eulyert but later in the evening the road
was closed on account of this washout
and another near the old pumping sta
tion. On the same road near the Brat
tleboro- -Dummerston line a smaller wash
out occurred.
j Yesterdays torrent took away a sec
tion of the highway between the four
corners on the Spofford lake road and
Chesterfield village, near the Charles
Goodwin place. makiHg the road i'm
passable Traffic between Brattleboro
| and the lake now goes by way of the old
road up over the hill from the four cor
ners. but that road is badly washed
A large tree fell across the highway
near the railroad crossing between Town
shend and West Townshend, necessitat-
ing detour of two or three miles