Lake Champlain Flood
© Emily McManamy, Free PressJake Ducharme (left) paddled a canoe from his home on Broadlake Rd. in Colchester to meet up with a group of friends waiting for him by the roadside
Anne Conlin's lakefront home on Appletree Point Road was holding its own Sunday, and pumps were draining lake water from the yard and the crawl-space under the 80-year-old house - pumping it, ironically perhaps, back into Lake Champlain.

"Where else?" she said.

The wind was gusting at 10 to 20 knots from the north, National Weather Service meteorologist John Goff said, and looking ahead, he said no rain was likely before Thursday.

That was good news.

The lake level Sunday afternoon was down to 102.94 feet above sea level, nearly three feet above the official flood level, and while the fall was indiscernible to the naked eye, it was an improvement over the record 103.2-foot level recorded Friday afternoon.

Conlin recalls high water in 1937, after which her father built a sea-wall in front of the then seasonal house, and 1983 was bad, she said, but "this is a doozy."

Her yard and others along the shore in the New North End are littered with driftwood, and some houses are surrounded by water.

It was peaceful Sunday, with a blue sky and flat water, but that could change in a moment, she said, if the wind shifted to the south.

"We're not out of trouble yet," she said.

Mayor Bob Kiss agreed, saying wind and waves would remain a concern for the foreseeable future.

He said it's not possible yet to assess how much damage has been done to city property on the lakeshore, but he expects damage at Perkins Pier, in "sea wall areas" and along sections of the bike path.

At Leddy Beach on Sunday, there was no beach, just chilly water lapping up to the wooden steps, and surrounding trees valued by beach-goers in the summer for shade.

"People's homes have been flooded, and for the next four to six weeks there will be concern about wind and waves," he said.

Goff predicted the lake would be down to 102.8 feet by today, and he said flood waters across the region were in "a steady or slowly declining state" Sunday.

That was scant solace to those whose homes are flooded, and many of those home-owners are without flood insurance.

Brenda Clark, a consumer specialist with the state Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration, told the Free Press that only 17.2 percent of Vermonters in high-hazard flood areas - 2,355 out of 13,834 structures - have flood insurance.

In Chittenden County, the number is lower. Ned Swanberg, the flood hazard mapping coordinator for the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, said just 86 of 605 structures in the high flood-hazard areas have insurance.

Conlin said much of her furniture has been moved upstairs, and while she's staying in her house for the time being, she said, "I'm packed."

She was grateful for the empathy shown by friends and volunteers.

"People have been heroic trying to help us," she said. "It was wonderful."