The Bethel Lympus Landscape Changed Dramatically by Storm
By Dorothy Manning

On last Wednesday, July 11, the landscape in Bethel Lympus changed dramatically. The forecast called for potentially damaging winds, hail and thunderstorms. A common enough forecast, that although noteworthy, doesn't generally cause too much concern.

At about 12:30 p.m., the deluge began and it poured continuously in our area for four hours. Every time we would think the storm was letting up, it would pick up again. When it finally did let up enough that we were able to go outside, we found that the water had done quite a bit of damage. A culvert that was ready to be installed on Norman and Amelia Martin's property had been washed down the road and ended up in the ditch.

The course of the brook behind Tom and Susan Rule's house had been changed. The area that was the main route for the brook behind their house was full of sand, rocks and other debris and the brook was flowing around that instead. The lawn behind our house had water flowing across it, and where there had once been four feet of bank between the brook and our shed there was none. If the water had come any higher the shed would have no longer had stable ground to rest on. A footbridge, near the shed, was washed out.

The roads were also a mess. In one place, where the ditch was full of sand, the water came over Gay Hill Road and onto our lawn near the four corners, like a waterfall. Further up Gay Hill, the beaver pond had overflowed. The water flowing down Dartt Hill tore a large ditch down the side of the road and created huge ruts. Some of the water, which had overflowed the culvert at the bottom of Dartt Hill, flowed into the ditch on Lilliesville Brook Road, creating a four-foot gash where that ditch had been.

Amy Manning, who lives on Dartt Hill, spent four hours trying to get home from work on Wednesday afternoon. Finally, after trying to go up Camp Brook Road and out Dartt and Brink Hills, she went around to Rochester and came over Camp Brook from that direction. She was able to travel down Campbell Brook Road and then up Dartt Hill to get home. Others also found that, while the roads were not officially closed after the storm, they were not safe to travel on, and in some cases blocked by fallen trees and other debris.

Further down on Lilliesville Brook Road the damage was worse. The bridge that had been constructed in 2000 was completely clogged with debris and washed out. Down the road, near Paul and Lisa Hill's house, the water had ripped the road out. Further down at Gary and Joann Wood's house, the road was also heavily eroded, exposing bedrock and a gash that was at least eight feet wide.

Past the old Lilliesville schoolhouse, the damage was worse. A camp across the brook was fine, but its bridge had been taken out and a car that had been left there was gone. Two more private bridges were out and a tree had struck a house, destroying part of it. A small Aframe house was washed into another small camp. Another camp had been washed off its foundation and was resting in the old brook bed. The bridge at the mouth of the Lilliesville brook down on River Road was out. The front lawn at the log cabin beside that bridge was also covered in silt and debris.

In Lympus, our rain gauge registered six inches of rain in the first storm. We emptied it after that first round of rain and by Thursday morning an additional two inches of rain had fallen. In a 24-hour period, we received more than eight inches of rain!

By Thursday evening, thanks to Doug Lunna, Tim Hart, the Bethel road crew, and others who pitched in and helped, there were at least two ways to get into the Bethel Lympus area. Each day the roads are improved a little more. This storm certainly served as a memorable reminder of how powerful summer storms can be.

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