this is the wetstone brook but it now resembles the colorado rapids. throughout the state there have been reports of people who have gone missing. at least one person is presumed dead after falling into a brook like this. what happened here is startling. i want you to see over here. this was a narrow brook. now the land has eroded. you can see this blue building is an art studio. there are yoga studios and offices inside. it is about to collapse. the ground underneath eroded because of the water that's gone into the brook. at any time this building could collapse. you may see lights flashing inside. there is an alarm going off. we were talking to someone who has an art studio inside the building. he 's ter bli sad. he said his office is the fourth window from the right on top. he wanted to go inside to recover his belongings. i advised him not to. this building could collapse at any time. the authorities have just arrived on the scene. this state is not used to hurricanes and tropical storms. last time they had a hurricane here was 1938, 73 years ago. t

this is the wetstone brook. it was totally placid, a thin creek where children have played for much of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. this is no longer the wet stone brook. this is the wet stone rapids. the power of irene in vermont has turned brooks and creeks into rapids. looks like what you would see at the grand canyon, at niagara falls. this is an office building with art studios and the power of the water exploded the brook three times what it was before. the building is now about to fall into this brook. we talked to one of the owners inside the building, an artist with an office on the top floor, third window from the right. he wanted to recover his belongings. we advised him that would not be a good idea and five minutes ago we heard a boom. part of the building appears to have collapsed. now in vermont, officials are trying to find out how many people might be missing. we do know one woman is missing and presumed dead when she apparently fell into a brook like this. high tide is expect

. >> looks like the wetstone brook is flooding on route 9 in west brattleboro. bridge is out. main street is closed. haven't seen it like this in a long time. >> with waters continuing to rise and rivers increase in many states, heavy flooding could be a problem in the days to come. >> amazing how fast the water is moving. that's breaking news now. rivers still rising. vermont faces the worst flooding since 1927. 260 roads affected. numerous bridges including some straight off a picture postcard. this is a covered bridge just getting overcome with water. gary, what's the situation? >> reporter: we are in the northern part of vermont near the state's biggest city of burlington. these are waters from the winewski river but the river is behind me about a quarter mile. this is a street and the flooding in northern vermont is just starting to crest as we speak a day after the tropical storm came through. but the worst damage and worst devastation is not in the northern part of the state. it's in the south where we spent much of the day. that's where creeks and brooks became raging