The US Geological Survey has created a Flood Inundation Mapper site for the Village of Waterbury.
This is the first such site in Vermont.
The work was funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to support recovery from Tropical Storm Irene. The Flood Inundation Mapper will soon be tied in to the National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service page for Waterbury.
The USGS Flood Inundation Mapper provides detailed maps of the extent of flooding at different flow levels in the Winooski River. With precipitation and discharge predictions by the NWS tied to the USGS stage gauge at Crossett Brook it will be possible to identify areas exposed to damage during the flood in progress. This will be helpful for emergency responses by residents, people working in the community and first responders.
The USGS work is based on an updated flood study by Scott Olson Flood maps for the Winooski River in Waterbury, Vermont, 2014: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2015–5077. The new study uses improved topography (filling in a section of Waterbury Village where LiDAR had not previously been available) and uses up-to-date hydrology including data through 2014.
FEMA updated the Flood Insurance Rate Map in 2013 however the maps portray hydrologic information (about flows) that were last updated in 1998.
The new USGS study follows FEMA guidelines for new flood maps and provides the best available federal data to guide planning and damage mitigation.
The US Geological Survey has recently completed several flood recovery map projects in Vermont with support from FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers' Silver Jackets Program.
The new data for the Ottauquechee, Third Branch, Tweed, White and Winooski Rivers are noted on the Resources page of Flood Ready Vermont.
