NORWICH — Three residents have had to vacate their homes due to an emergency closure of their only access road, after the embankment supporting the road was washed out by recent flooding.

Town staff announced last month that Hemlock Road, a dead-end road off Route 5 that borders the Ompompanoosuc River, will be closed indefinitely due to damage sustained from floodwaters on July 10.

An inspection of the road by contracted engineers found that the road’s primary embankment had collapsed as a result of fast-moving water in the river and oversaturated soil by the heavy rains.

The loss of support beneath the road caused the roadway to split, and one portion of road appears to be actively sinking into the failing slope beneath it, according to engineer Mark Neuroth, of Stantec, a Burlington-based consulting firm.

“The groundmass had vertically dropped up to 10 inches as of July 24, and the failure crack measured 160 feet long and 9 inches wide along the roadside itself,” Neuroth told Norwich Selectboard members at a meeting last Wednesday.

Due to the active erosion, the town decided to close the road on July 21 and notify the occupants of four homes that they would need to vacate until either a temporary access road is built or the permanent repairs to Hemlock are made.

Five homes in total occupy Hemlock Road, though one house is located close to the Route 5 intersection and is not impacted by the closure.

Two affected homes are located at the far end of the road and are part of a single estate. The owner, Kathleen Peterson, died on July 8. Family members attending her funeral service on July 20 were staying at one of the homes when the town announced the closure.

The other two affected homes. located between the Peterson property and the closure site, were being rented by tenants. Three tenants total — one living at 95 Hemlock Rd. and two living at 101 Hemlock Rd. — had to vacate.

Yanmei Lin, owner of one of the rental properties, said she has prorated the tenant’s lease and had to provide a temporary living placement.

“We’re concerned about the buildings’ safety because no one is there now on that road,” Lin said at Wednesday’s meeting. “There is no one to take care of the properties, (and) everything is still in the homes. So if there is a fire, there is no one to take care of that. No one would know if there is an emergency on that road.”

Israel Maynard, of Stantec, who attended the meeting remotely, said a temporary access road could be completed relatively quickly, though he did not estimate a date of completion. The project will require a temporary easement from a nearby landowner to build the road on private property.

“But the design for that could be done pretty quickly, and the contractor work is not specialized work, mostly just dirt and gravel, so it should be pretty quick to procure a contractor and get them going on that,” Maynard said.

Stantec estimated the total repairs to Hemlock Road to cost $1.1 million, which includes $100,000 for the temporary access road. The entire project would be eligible for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also known as FEMA.

Interim Town Manager Brennan Duffy said the town will be applying for FEMA reimbursement to fund the permanent repairs but will begin work immediately on building a temporary road.

The permanent repairs to Hemlock Road will take between a year and 18 months to complete. The work will include installing a retaining wall on the embankment, rebuilding the slope, replacing a failed culvert under Hemlock Road and stabilizing the streambank to prevent future erosion.

Neuroth said the application deadline for FEMA reimbursement is 30 days from the disaster declaration, which was issued on July 14 by President Joe Biden.

As of Monday, Duffy said he could not estimate when construction of a temporary access road or the permanent repairs might begin.

Patrick Adrian may be reached at padrian@vnews.com or at 603-727-3216.