Wilmington Police Chief Joe Szarejko confirmed Monday afternoon that a 20-year-old woman from the Eastern European country of Macedonia drowned when the car she was in became trapped by flooding Sunday from the Deerfield River.
Ivana Taseva, 20, was in southern Vermont on a work program at the Mount Snow ski area in Dover as part of its housekeeping staff, Szarejko said.
She, her boyfriend and two other men came upon an area covered in water while driving Sunday, Szarejko said. They were unable to drive away, the chief said, and the car began to be swept away by the floodwaters. Taseva and her boyfriend tried unsuccessfully to get to higher ground, and while the boyfriend was able to hold onto the car, Taseva was swept away, Szarejko said.
All three men escaped uninjured
Authorities previously reported Taseva's age as 21.
Taseva’s body was found at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Szarejko said. He said she was located 175 yards from where she went into the water, in a field that had been previously covered by the floodwaters.
Szarejko said there had been reports of several people in town who had not been heard from, but police officers did welfare checks on those people and found all of them to be OK. Now that the floodwaters have receded, however, Szarejko said the destruction in the town of Wilmington is becoming clear.
“The streets are heavily coated with mud. In businesses and stores, a lot of windows are broken,” he said. “We had a number of buildings damaged. I’m sure some will be condemned.”
Szarejko said the roof of a building was found on Vermont 100, but no one has been able to determine where it came from.
Damaged buildings include town offices and the police department. Szarejko said officers are able to work from their cars.
He described a chaotic scene as the floodwaters raged Sunday.
“There were people who needed help we couldn’t get to,” he said, adding that police officers were temporarily stranded as they were surrounded by water.
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