(NECN: Jack Thurston, Essex, Vt.) - The Maidstone Highway in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom remained closed as of Monday afternoon, following high water and damage from last week's relentless rain.
It is the last state-managed road closed due to flood problems, though several town roads also are closed, some for several weeks. The Vt. Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security asked motorists Monday to respect detours until those roads are deemed passable.
Rainfall totals in communities like Jericho, Vt. easily exceeded nine inches over the past week, according to National Weather Service data. Several other towns in Chittenden and Lamoille Counties saw at least seven or eight inches, with much of the rest of the state tallying between three and five inches of rain over the past week.
Just across the Canadian border from Derby Line, Vt., a road crew spent Monday repairing a significant hole that opened up during the storms, forcing the closure of a border crossing between Vermont and Canada.
"Those who are used to coming over every day or every other day for gas, post office or whatever-- it might've been a hardship for them," said Rachel Ducharme, the owner of Rachel's Teapot Cafe and Tea Room in Derby Line.
Ducharme said she was glad the shutdown didn't seem to keep too many customers away. Her Vermont visitors wouldn't have been impacted much at all, she said, and any Canadian customers could've just used another nearby border crossing.
At the Jay Peak Resort, it wasn't rain but snow that was impacting business.
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"This is definitely the latest we've had accumulating golf snow on the golf course," said director of golf operations Jaime Stenger.
Stenger told New England Cable News the back nine holes of the golf course had to close for part of the Memorial Day holiday due to weekend snowfall.
"We've sold quite a few yellow golf balls this morning," he chuckled, explaining white balls may have been hard to spot with the snow that fell this weekend.
A foot to 18 inches of snow fell at the peak of Jay’s ski mountain, but far less reached the golf course. That snowfall caused no damage to the greens or fairways, Stenger noted, and at least watered the grass after the prolonged dry-spell this spring. The resort was able to reopen its closed holes after the snow quickly melted.
The snow in the higher elevations had some people hiking to the top of the mountain and skiing or boarding down.
"You could have skied first thing in the morning, and golfed this afternoon," Stenger said.
He and Rachel Ducharme both suggested that after scenes of serious damage from flash flooding in several Vermont communities last week, the waterlogged state was very glad for a sunny, dry Memorial Day.
"This is probably the best news we've had in a long time," Ducharme said.
There is more rain in the forecast mid-week, but meteorologists at the National Weather Service's offices at the Burlington International Airport told NECN we will not be hammered with the kind of severe rainfall totals we saw last week. Much smaller rain amounts are expected, they noted, likely significantly less than an inch in many places.
