The technical name is ‘mud-sucker’
July 17, 2023 | By Lisa Scagliotti
The St. Albans vactor “mud-sucker” vactor truck on the move on Randall Street on Wednesday, July 12. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
For many in Waterbury’s low-lying neighborhoods within reach of the Winooski River, the July 10 flood felt like a re-run of Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011.
Fortunately for many though, water this time filled basements stopping short of entering people’s first-floor living spaces. “It was just up to the lightbulbs” in the basement ceiling said Randall Street resident Norm Peterson outside his home last week.
The floodwaters spilled out across fields, neighborhoods and streets from the Ice Center to South Main Street, to Elm and Randall, covering Dac Rowe Park and the roundabout, and inundating parts of U.S. Route 2 near Farr’s Field. Union Street near Armory Drive for a time became a pond. People in kayaks and canoes paddled around the downtown on Tuesday morning surveying the extent of the Winooski’s reach.
By afternoon, Waterbury Fire Department had returned trucks to the station where water pooled from Monday evening on. Business owners entered their stores and restaurants to take stock of what the water brought in.
The Waterbury Select Board held emergency meetings Tuesday through Thursday to begin the logistical planning from ordering large trash containers to creating an online resource document with a signup for people both needing and offering help. Several board members began the task of coordinating volunteers for cleanup, providing meals and other types of support. Groups like the Waterbury Rotary Club and the Harwood School Board have stepped in with help on meals. Brookside Primary School will become a summer recreation camp location for middle schoolers displaced now that their regular meeting place, Wesley United Methodist Church was flooded.
Public Works Director Bill Woodruff gave daily briefings on road conditions as waters receded and closed sections were reopened. The hardest-hit downtown was Winooski Street where the river jumped its banks and carved out a new path across the street in front of the bridge connecting to Duxbury’s River Road. A temporary single-lane path was built by the end of the week providing a key connection for residents along River Road north of the bridge and up in the Camel’s Hump Road neighborhoods. River Road was closed for several days from the bridge to Main Street in Duxbury making Winooski Street the only access for those residents.
Duxbury officials reported no other significant road damage. Select Board Chair Richard Charland said brooks and streams stayed within their banks and residential areas along Main Street near the Winooski did not appear to have been flooded into homes.
Waterbury’s water system remained unaffected from the flooding. Woodfuff reported no need for boiling for cusomers. Wastewater users however were asked to cut back on using water as that system was inundated with many times its usual volume. Offices around town and workplaces including Darn Tough, the State Office Complex, Hunger Mountain Children’s Center, Central Vermont Medical Center’s medical clinic and other health care offices, etc. all shut down for several days to cut use in the system. As a result of the combined efforts, Waterbury has not reported any wastewater spills. Wastewater lagoons were just reaching their brim last week when a crew from Stowe arrived to assist with pumping to bring levels down. Woodruff said that effort was susccessful.
Municipal Manager Tom Leitz said Waterbury last week benefitted from assistance from multiple other municipalities. Crews from Stowe and Burlington came to assist with pumping water from basements, he said. Another visit happened without even asking. It involved operators of a specialized truck called a “vactor” from St. Albans Public Works. “It’s basically a giant shop vac,” Woodruff explained. The truck can pump water and the silty mud the river left behind in basements across town and the extraction process goes many times faster than people using shovels and buckets.
The St. Albans truck was in town on Wednesday and Thursday going door-to-door. Residents cheered them on and gushed at the efficiency and success of the “mud-sucker” truck and its friendly crew.
Leitz already has penned a letter to the editor of the St. Albans Messenger newspaper to be sure operators Isaac Manahan and Ryley Mangan get recognized. (Prior to coming to work in Waterbury, Leitz was an administrator in St. Albans City government.)
“Without asking Dom and Marty reached out to offer assistance. For the last two days St. Albans has loaned their vactor truck to help clean out basements. Most people were able to pump out the water, but at the bottom there is often a thick layer of mud and sediment that is heavy and difficult to remove. In some places it’s a foot deep. We don’t have a machine that can make a dent and otherwise have to rely on homeowners and volunteers with shovels and buckets. As you can imagine the vactor has given us a major lift.
Isaac Manahan and Ryley Mangan spent the last few days manning the truck. These guys worked their tails off for us here in Waterbury, and they did it with a smile. When they arrived yesterday my first question was to ask how late they could stay. Their answer was to simply state however late we are needed.
… Hopefully you can assist in getting these guys recognized. The downside for St. Albans is we’ve already made them job offers. We’ll find a way to pay it forward.”
- Tom Leitz, Municipal Manager, Town of Waterbury
When asked about whether Waterbury might consider a vactor of its own, Woodruff said it could come in handy for cleaning out storm drains and working in manholes and on underground water and sewer lines. But those uses are more common in larger cities, he noted. The trucks cost upward of $600,000 new, according to an online search.
“I told Woody he could have one,” Leitz said tongue in cheek. “He just needs to get [fire chief] Gary [Dillon] to cancel the new [fire] truck.”
Another vactor crew joined the Waterbury effort on Friday. Cleanup downtown that day was punctuated by a visit from U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and a lunch buffet with music at Prohibition Pig Brewery. In addition to numerous local residents from in and around Waterbury pitching in to help were workers from nearby businesses. Darn Tough staff handed out clean, dry, new socks. KORE Power employees went door to door emptying basements of mud-covered belongings in record time.
By late Wednesday afternoon, Steve Odefey stood in his driveway in disbelief of how much had been removed, piled up and even cleaned since the morning. “They were amazing,” he said.
Neighbors Norm and Marthe Peterson agreed saying people they had just met from the nearby battery storage company showed up as if they knew their house and just began carting wet things outside. Beside their front walk was a real estate “for sale” sign. Did that go up before or after the flood? “Sunday,” the Petersons said with a wince. They are planning a move to Johnson. Whether it’s good timing or not remains to be seen.
While they chatted, a young man pulled up to the curb and hopped out of his car carrying two glass baking dishes. Inside were just a few still-warm cookies that he offered to the mud-splattered couple. Dominic Mazzilli, he replied, when asked his name. From Moretown and a junior civil engineering student at Vermont Technical College. He said he and a friend decided to bake and visit the flooded Waterbury neighborhoods with peanut butter and chocolate cookies. “I wish I had more he said,” with just a couple left in one dish. And yes, the name is familiar. He said his dad is former Waterbury Police officer Anthony Mazzilli.
Across the street, Lucy Ely Pagan was dwarfed by the sodden pile from her basement along the curb. “I asked God to give me strength to help me. I didn’t know if I could do this again,” she said, recalling Irene and its destruction to her home nearly 12 years ago. She echoed her neighbors’ gratitide for the volunteers showing up and digging right in to empty out wet, muddy basements. “It’s the people that keep the town running.”
See daily flood updates with details on cleanup, volunteer needs, etc. in the Waterbury Roundabout News section.
Click to enlarge the photos below and see captions.
