美国东北部持续暴雨引发特大山洪

New England and parts of New York are drenched after heavy rains and flash flooding. At least one person has died.

在暴雨引发山洪后，新英格兰和纽约部分地区都泡在水中。至少一人遇难。

And Vermont is one of the hardest-hit states.

佛蒙特州是受灾最严重的州之一。

Rivers there threaten to overflow their banks, flooding towns, closing roads and forcing evacuations.

那里的河流将要溢出河岸，淹没城镇，关闭道路，迫使人们撤离，情况危急。

In some parts of the state, trapped drivers had to swim out of their floating, swirling cars.

在该州的一些地区，被困的司机不得不从漂浮的、打旋的汽车中游出来。

And President Biden issued an emergency declaration to release federal aid.

拜登总统发布发放联邦援助的紧急声明。

Vermont Public's Liam Elder-Connors is with us now with an update on the latest. Good morning.

佛蒙特州公共电视台的利亚姆·埃尔德-康纳斯将为我们带来最新消息。早上好。

Good morning.

早上好。

So I understand that you're in Burlington, which is in the northwestern part of the state. What's the situation there?

我了解到你现在身处伯灵顿，那里位于佛蒙特州的西北部。那里的情况如何?

Well, it's still raining, and parts of the state are still under a flood warning this morning.

今天早上，雨还在下，该州部分地区仍有洪水爆发的警告。

There have been evacuations across the state. Nearly a dozen emergency shelters were set up yesterday.

整个州都进行了疏散。昨天建立了近12个紧急避难所。

And as of last night, there were more than 50 water rescues made by emergency crews.

截至昨晚，紧急救援人员进行了50多次水上救援。

And a big concern is that things are potentially going to get worse.

一个很大的担忧是，情况可能会恶化。

Several major rivers were expected to crest overnight and early this morning, and officials are monitoring several dams that might overflow, including one near Vermont's capital, Montpelier.

几条主河流预计将在今天凌晨和夜间达到洪峰，官员们正在监测几座可能外溢河水的水坝，其中包括佛蒙特州首府蒙彼利埃附近的一座水坝。

So how unusual is this amount of rain? And you've been giving us a sense of this, but how destructive has it been so far?

这么大的降雨量有多不寻常呢? 你一直在给我们传递这种感觉，但到目前为止，暴雨的破坏性有多大呢?

Well, we've seen lots of road closures. Flooding has been bad in downtown Montpelier especially.

我们看到很多道路封闭。蒙彼利埃市中心的洪水尤其严重。

And the last time we saw anything similar to this was more than a decade ago.

上一次我们看到类似的情况是在十多年前。

Tropical Storm Irene brought 11 inches of rain in 24 hours.

那时，热带风暴“艾琳”在24小时内带来了11英寸的降雨。

Now, we're still waiting for the totals of this storm, but this storm's been lingering, which concerns safety officials.

现在，我们仍在等待测量这场风暴的总降雨量，但这场风暴一直在持续，这让安全官员感到担忧。

I talked to Moretown fire Chief Stefan Pratt, and he told me he's worried about these conditions.

我采访了摩城消防队长斯特凡·普拉特，他告诉我他对这些情形很担忧。

It looks like it's going to stay at that crest mark in major flooding for approximately 12 hours.

看起来这次汹涌的洪水将要在洪峰水平停留大约12小时。

Whereas Irene - it came up, and then it went back down.

而热带风暴“艾琳”的情况是，洪水先上升，之后又下降了。

We're going to be at, you know, 12 hours of it staying high, which is, you know, very dangerous.

我们会有12个小时处于洪水高位，这是非常危险的。

So I visited Moretown yesterday afternoon. That's a small town in central Vermont of just over 1,700 people.

我昨天下午去了摩城。这是佛蒙特州中部的一个小城镇，人口只有1700多人。

And like many small towns in Vermont, a river runs through it.

像佛蒙特州的许多小城镇一样，一条河流穿过这里。

In fact, there's a river that runs along the winding road that leads to that town, which is also pretty common in Vermont.

事实上，有一条河沿着蜿蜒的道路流到那个城镇，这在佛蒙特州很常见。

And while I was driving there, water was lapping along the banks.

当我开车到那里的时候，河水拍打着河岸。

And in Moretown, they were preparing to evacuate about 30 homes if the river rose, and the water was rising pretty fast.

在摩城，河水一上涨且涨得很快时，他们就要准备疏散大约30户人家。

While I was out reporting, in about an hour or so on my drive home, one of the roads that I had passed by closed down due to the river flooding over its banks.

在我外出报道开车回家的一个小时左右的时间里，我经过的一条道路因为河水淹没堤岸而关闭了。

So the conditions have been changing pretty quickly.

所以情况是瞬息万变。