PEACHAM, Vt. — (AP) — The last thing John and Jenny Mackenzie saw as they fled their Vermont home with their daughters, dog and two guinea pigs last summer was their cars upended and propelled away by rushing flood waters.
Minutes earlier they had abandoned their 19th-century wood-frame house as the remnants of Hurricane Beryl turned it into an island engulfed by surging flood waters, with trees slamming into it and water gushing at colossal speed into the basement and first floor.
“It was just like it was a horror movie at that point,” John Mackenzie said of the surreal scene on that July 10 night.
“We lost both of our vehicles, our home and our barn and at least half of our possessions,” Jenny Mackenzie said.
Since that terrifying storm when two people died swept away in vehicles, the Mackenzies, both teachers, and their twin daughters have been living temporarily in a friend’s house. …