“There is a lot of water,” Barre City Manager Nicolas Storellicastro said on July 10, after eight inches of rain had fallen on central Vermont, causing near-record flooding that left much of the Twin Cities and its neighboring towns under feet of water.
It did not match the infamous Flood of 1927, but it was close. A Barre man died as a result of the flooding, having fallen into waters in his basement. The damage to downtown Barre and Montpelier was staggering, as businesses and state government came to a halt. While the state’s offices could relocate, many businesses were stranded, with basement and first-floor inventory filled with water and toxic silt. Mountains of flood-damaged debris was stacked high on streets. Homes were destroyed — many of them in the north end of the Granite City.
For months, federal workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Small Business Association were taking inventory of the damage, and desperately trying to provide assistance to those who came forward.
The cleanup was a long, gross and tedious process. Ultimately, the flood claimed several central Vermont businesses and scores of homes in its wake.
In the subsequent months, the toll taken on central Vermont has been extraordinary. A reminder of that trauma came just a few days ago, when another heavy rain storm, accompanied by a rapidly melting snowpack, brought back the panic as the region reached flood stage once again. Fortunately, the water receded without doing significant damage.
Here is a partial accounting of the events since July 10-11:
On July 10, it rained and rained and rained. Soon after, an American Red Cross shelter set up at the Barre Municipal Auditorium housed nearly 200 people from around the region who sought shelter from the flooding cities. Mudslides blocked closed Route 62 and several main streets around Barre. Good Samaritan Haven evacuated 50 residents. Because roads were washed out, emergency crews took hours to carefully shuttle area residents through floodwaters to the Aud. Damage included the City Hall in Barre and in Montpelier. Roads across central Vermont had to be closed off entirely. The Winooski River reportedly peaked at just over 21 feet in Montpelier. That’s the highest the river has been in the city since 1927, when the river reached 27.1 feet. The Wrightsville Dam was close to capacity but, ultimately, held. Barre Town had its share of washouts, and lost a police cruiser that was getting detail work done in the city.
On July 11, more rain was in the forecast. State and federal officials began taking stock of the damage as the mucking out began. Flooding hit some communities harder than others. State officials said Montpelier, Barre, Ludlow, Londonderry, Andover and sections of Lamoille County were hit hardest. Gov. Phil Scott declared a state of emergency, and President Joe Biden approved a federal emergency disaster declaration. Within 24 hours of receding floodwaters, public works crews in both communities got off to a solid start, removing silt and mud. Fortunately, even with more rain falling, the still-swollen rivers had dropped below flood stage, and were continuing to recede. Across both communities, more than 1,200 individuals had reached out to volunteers for help. Montpelier Alive began coordinating a volunteer clean-up initiative there; the Barre Partnership took the reins in Barre. Private volunteer groups run through faith-based organizations also jumped in.
By July 12, damage assessments were rolling in. The governor urged Vermonters to be somewhere safe as thunderstorms were expected to roll through in the coming days, bringing with them a potential for flash flooding. In droves, Vermonters were signing up for the online public alert system provided by the state. In response to the widespread damage, Scott requested a second major disaster declaration from President Biden . Four American Red Cross shelters were opened statewide, including one in Barre. Within three days of the initial storm, 24 state roads remained closed, down from 81 on the first day. Eight state roads spanning some 63 miles were still closed; 24.5 miles were partially open. Forty-nine bridges had been inspected and cleared as safe. In Barre and Montpelier, the downtowns were closed off to all traffic. Business owners got their first look at the heartbreaking damage. Teams of volunteers were jumping in to help, with others arriving from out of state, or on their way.
On July 13, both downtowns were mucking out. The air was filled with the sounds of alarms, generators and pumps. Sidewalks became holding areas for water-logged refuse ready for disposal. Volunteers and contractors were busy helping business owners and residents clear out buildings. Sidewalks were slick from silt. In Montpelier, it was announced that City Hall was closed indefinitely.
By July 14, the first death was confirmed. The Department of Health said Stephen Davoll, 63, of Barre City, had drowned in the basement of his home the previous day. Meanwhile, President Biden approved Vermont’s request for a major disaster declaration, allowing financial resources from the federal government to be tapped by the state. Around the state, cleanup efforts continued. State officials cautioned about health risks, as well as the importance of documenting losses among farmers and others within the agriculture industry that saw crops wiped out. More roads were reopened. Some 300 miles of railroad track remained closed, with 103 miles having been reopened. Amtrak reopened late that day.
After the first week since the flood began, cleanup was continuous around the Twin Cities and the region. Montpelier Strong Recovery Fund was formed by nonprofits Montpelier Alive and the Montpelier Foundation and raised $300,000 in a matter of days. Money was coming in from around the country. In addition, Katie Trautz, executive director of Montpelier Alive, reported some 2,000 volunteers had signed up to help around the city.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited Vermont to assess the damage. He called what he saw “heartbreaking.” Buttigieg said after seeing the resiliency of Vermonters, there was little doubt in his mind that the state will recover and come out of this event stronger than ever.
On July 19, Vermonters were told not to neglect their mental health as the scope of the devastation caused by the recent floods comes into better focus. The state announced mental health resources were available for people to use as they undertake the physical work of recovering from flood damage. State officials said between July 1 and July 16, the 988 hotline received 378 calls. Many more were expected as the cleanup efforts continued.
In addition, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that her state would lend some aid to Vermont for flood relief. New York sent nine engineers from the New York Power Authority and the Department of Environmental Conservation to Montpelier. They’d help to inspect dams that aren’t hydroelectric or regulated by the federal government.
By July 21, the state announced it would launch a grant program for Vermont businesses to help with flood recovery. The Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program, or BEGAP, would be administered by the Department of Economic Development and would provide $20 million directly to impacted businesses and not-for-profits who suffered physical damage due to the severe flooding in the form of grants.
In addition, State Treasurer Mike Pieciak said $11 million in collected taxes was advanced to the 40 towns deemed most heavily impacted by the flooding. This would allow them to pay for the recovery work needed right now while they await other funding sources to come through. The state also paused an $80 million local investment program in case those funds are needed and the state controlled financial institutes are ready to help, if necessary. Tax deadlines for those affected by the flood were extended. The governor also announced the Vermont Strong license plates would be reintroduced to raise funds for flood relief and recovery efforts.
On July 25, about 120 flood-weary citizens of Barre turned out to talk with FEMA officials in a town hall-style forum at the Barre Opera House. Most who attended the forum — roughly half in person and the other half online — said they lost something in the flooding and accompanying landslides. Some sought information about buyouts, and sought assurances about timelines for assistance. Others expressed concern about repetitive flooding and a desire for direction about what could be done about it. The federal officials remained non-committal, which frustrated some locals. In those first two weeks, FEMA had 460 personnel in Vermont and doled out $1.6 million to those impacted.
In late July, Barre’s Storellicastro sought and obtained approval from the City Council for a series of motions designed to expedite and enhance ongoing recovery efforts. He also provided city councilors with a sobering update on where things stood two weeks removed from the flooding. Storellicastro told councilors debris removal had been expedited after the state was contracted to complete that work. Councilors were told roughly 200 units — a mix of apartments and single-family homes — had been inspected. Nearly half (94) had been deemed safe for occupancy and most of the rest (93) had been “yellow tagged,” allowing for partial occupancy until repairs are completed. Virtually all of the properties involve electrical panels, heating systems, or both, that were underwater at the height of the storm. Storellicastro said properties that had been “red tagged” have been evacuated due to structural impacts — some caused by flooding and others by landslides. Since the flood, there were 20 landslides — four that have directly affected nearby structures. The numbers were expected to worsen.
Meanwhile, in Barre Town, officials there were unhappy that the Barre Town Middle & Elementary School wasn’t available as an emergency shelter because the showers there haven’t been in use for two decades. The school superintendent said the showers had since been fixed and the school would have been and is available, if needed. During the height of flooding, officials had been watching water levels at the Wrightsville Dam in Montpelier. At the height of the flood, water was about a foot away from over-topping the dam. Had water over-topped the dam and flowed down into an already-flooded Capital City, officials had planned on using the school in Barre Town as an overflow shelter for Montpelier residents evacuated out of the city.
Closing out the month, emergency management officials held a regional meeting in Berlin to discuss the ongoing recovery process. Town officials there reported 28 mobile homes at Berlin Mobile Home Park had been declared condemned, along with five more such homes at River Run Manor Mobile Home Park. Many of those who participated in the town hall said they were residents of the parks. Officials acknowledged they didn’t have a lot of the answers to residents’ questions.
On Aug. 8, the group that runs Vermont’s 211 service argued under-funding led to it being overwhelmed by calls during the recent floods. The leaders of Vermont’s United Ways put out a joint statement arguing that 10 days before the historic levels of flooding impacted the state they had to cut back staff, leading to a backlog as state officials encouraged everyone to use the service for reporting damage and finding help. The last week of July saw 211 receive more than 3,500 calls. In the entire month of June, it received fewer than 2,800 calls, according to the United Ways.
In early September, some 250 people attended the first of three flood-related forums in Montpelier. (Subsequent forums were also well attended.) The group concluded the road to flood recovery and resilience in Montpelier should be paved with a couple of new commissions, a task force to explore creating an “adaptive downtown,” a flood-hardened wastewater treatment plant, improved emergency preparedness communications and plenty of funding. The forum opened on an upbeat note as participants were told Montpelier Strong had surpassed its $2 million fundraising goal by $30,000. A first round of grants totaling roughly $500,000 had already been awarded to businesses affected by the flood and another $1 million in grants was being processed.
In the neighboring Granite City, the Barre Community Relief Fund was also receiving donations.
On Aug. 29, the state reminded flood victims that they could apply for up to $20,000, and in some cases more, through BEGAP. Concerns began mounting that local homeowners and business owners were not reaching out for federal and state assistance. At the time, the state reported about 700 people had started applications, but only around 150 had finalized them. Another 150 or so had asked a few questions about their application yet haven’t resubmitted. A media blitz ensued.
A week later, the administration also was pushing its other programs related to flood hazard mitigation in an effort to get more flood-affected Vermonters to sign up for help. At that time, the state reported 194 property owners had expressed interest in doing a buyout, including residents of Barre City, Middlesex, Johnson, Hardwick and Marshfield. Barre officials said said between 20 and 30 property owners expressed interest in a buyout.
Around Labor Day, at almost a rate of two or three per week, businesses started to reopen in both Barre and Montpelier. The re-openings became more prevalent throughout the autumn months.
In early September, the Scott administration noted that the state’s labor shortage could slow flood recovery. The Department of Labor said in July that the state’s unemployment rate had dropped to 1.9% for the month of June. Vermont experienced historic levels of flooding in early July, leading to an ongoing recovery effort. But the drop to 1.9% in June reflected a one-fifth of 1% decrease. “While the labor shortage has continued to be a challenge, we’ve been able to prioritize the flood recovery, and we don’t believe anything would have happened more quickly if we had more people,” stated Erin Sisson, deputy chief engineer at AOT. Twelve constriction sites were damaged in the flooding, and 11 have recovered. FEMA said it was hiring for several temporary positions to aid Vermont in the disaster recovery.
In mid-September, Montpelier officials and FEMA representatives met to discuss the logistics of setting up three dozen FEMA trailers on city-owned land at the end of Country Club Road. The city was poised and eager to negotiate the lease agreement.
Meanwhile in Barre, Storellicastro reported to councilors that the implications of the July flooding could be felt for years to come. Storellicastro said “cash flow” was an immediate concern, and City Clerk Carol Dawes predicted long-term financing would be needed. Storellicastro said three dozen requests for flood-related property tax abatements could drain $190,000 in revenue from the city budget. At least 350 Barre City properties sustained flood damage. At the time, the city had already processed more than $50,000 in water and sewer abatement requests associated with the flood. Storellicastro reported the city’s financial exposure was “significant” and could increase exponentially.
Shortly after that City Council meeting, 150 people showed up at the Barre Opera House for a facilitated forum concerning the local flood recovery. The event was hosted by the city’s new long-term recovery group, Barre Up. It proved to be an opportunity for residents to weigh in on a range of flood-related issues, from housing to long-term recovery and resilience.
Montpelier officials did agree to negotiate the no-cost, two-year lease with FEMA for emergency housing. FEMA noted it was prepared to move swiftly to create temporary housing for displaced central Vermont families while installing expensive infrastructure that will remain after the mobile homes are removed. FEMA officials indicated they would attempt to construct streets that mirror those depicted in the city’s favored concept plan for the property to serve 36 mobile homes that would be removed no later than July 18, 2025.
On Sept. 19, the state announced Vermonters using federal food benefits would be able to purchase hot food for a while longer. Hunger Free Vermont said the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the extension of the hot-foods waiver for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program through Oct. 17. It affected nine counties in the state designated by FEMA for Individual Assistance following the July floods.
er, Barre officials were told the water was finally safe to drink. However, the financial forecast for the flood-damaged city was still murky. Storellicastro said there is cause for concern as the city began fronting money to finance projects for which it won’t be fully reimbursed, it readied to tackle abatement requests that stood at 43 and counting; and braced for buyouts of as many as 31 properties “substantially damaged” by flooding. He did not give a price tag at the time, but indicated it will be a burden on the $13.7 million municipal budget. In early October, again to address what was perceived to be a cause for concern to get more flood-affected Vermonters to sign up for assistance, several of Vermont’s disaster recovery centers announced they would stay open through mid-month, and then Halloween. At the time it was estimated that there’s been $20.8 million in individual assistance needs reported, and $123 million in public assistance. By comparison, Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 had over $200 million in requests for public assistance. State government began reaching out to people who had their heating systems damaged by the floods. At the time, they’d heard back from about half of the 1,000 people surveyed, with about half of those responding indicating their heating systems still aren’t working.
City councilors received a briefing from state officials on Oct. 10, confirming to local officials that Barre had in fact been “ground zero” for the July flooding. Doug Farnham, the state’s chief recovery officer, told councilors they should consider a game-changing project for the community, with an eye toward the devastated north end. Farnham said Barre’s damage was two and a half times the damage seen in the Capital City. “As far as community, residential and business impact, Barre stands out as the most impacted,” he said. With an additional $10 billion in congressionally approved disaster relief funds available, state officials urged Barre officials to move quickly.
The next day, from the podium, the Republican governor announced Vermont likely would be seeing more flooding in the coming years because of climate change. He said a great deal of resiliency work had occurred since Tropical Storm Irene ravaged the state in 2011. “When it comes to responding to climate change, my team’s philosophy has been to work on efforts to lower emissions, but also preparing us for impacts of more powerful and severe storm events.” He warned it’s not enough to focus on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change; building and rebuilding infrastructure and natural systems so they can handle more severe weather events also will be necessary.
On Oct. 24, Barre Town officials gave the green light for specialized engineering work looking at five areas in town that were impacted by July’s flooding that the town can’t fix on its own. Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, an engineering firm the town contracted to do engineering work on certain areas impacted by this summer’s flooding, focused in on Camp Street, East Cobble Hill Road, Holden Road, a sewer line near the Wildersburg housing development and a small section of the bike path in South Barre. The total cost estimate for the geotechnical engineering work for the five sites is $118,200. The select board voted unanimously to approve the expense.
The next evening, Gov. Scott, a Barre native, showed up to make an in-person presentation to the Barre City Council in an effort to kick off a conversation about post-flood redevelopment in Barre. Flood resiliency was one of the guiding principles behind Scott’s vision of a reconfigured north end. Maximizing federal funding was another, he said, along with increasing housing in the region. Scott urged the council, and the community, to “keep an open mind.” “I’m not forcing anything on anyone. I’m just trying to inspire people to think broadly about what we could do right now, in this time, to help Barre and to open up this gateway into Barre with a green space (in place of housing that has been repetitively damaged by flooding),” he said. The council was cautiously optimistic. Scott advised the next step would be agreeing to a broad concept and a rough dollar figure to aid congressional efforts to secure funding.
In early November, Barre councilors authorized the removal of two deteriorating city-owned dams located on the Stevens Branch of the Winooski River. The Friends of the Winooski have been working on the removal of those two dams — one, which is located in neighboring Barre Town — as well a third that is owned by Trow & Holden Co. Councilors blessed removal of the two dams owned by the city. That work is not imminent and will not be financed with local property taxes.
In the days leading up to Black Friday, the governor asked Vermonters to dig a little deeper into their wallets this holiday season. He indicated he wanted $1 million raised over a six-week period to help people and businesses still struggling to recover from this summer’s floods. This would be done through sales of “Vermont Strong” license plates and socks. Vermont Strong license plates were first sold back in 2011 to raise funds to help with the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene. The program was rolled out again in August and has generated $715,000 in funds split between the Vermont Community Foundation, and BEGAP.
In addition, with some snow on the ground, approximately 1,100 homeowners reported their heating systems had been damaged. The state connected them and found 250 needed help. As of mid-November, 200 of those reported their systems had been fixed or were scheduled to be fixed.
Since the flood, Montpelier officials have continually pushed to have the city’s post office reopened somewhere in the downtown. The federal building was damaged during the flooding. The city has met with the staff of Vermont’s congressional delegation while lamenting the lack of “any direct information or communication” about the issue, including long-term plans for the federal building that has been experienced by the city, the state, and the delegation. In an Oct. 31 letter to U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch, and U.S. Rep. Becca Balint requested, among other things, that a temporary indoor location be found in Montpelier and opened. Instead, in November, the postal service created capacity to accommodate those who had P.O. boxes in Montpelier at the Barre Post Office, while suggesting retail customers could either travel there, or to the post office on Route 2 in East Montpelier. The change isn’t permanent, the USPS said.
In Barre, owners of 96 flood-damaged properties were notified they must provide documentation to the city by the end of December or risk the consequences associated with a finding their buildings were “substantially damaged” during catastrophic flooding. Absent information about repairs that are either needed, or completed without required permits, Storellicastro said all of the properties are in the floodplain. He said 40 are the subject of pending buyout requests.
On Dec. 18, Montpelier officials found themselves stunned to learn that FEMA was walking away from the lease agreement for the 26 acres of city-owned land on Country Club Road. The agency said the land for one of its highly anticipated “group housing sites” was “no longer needed,” and those the project would have served could be more swiftly housed elsewhere. The deal had only been signed Nov. 15. The lease guarantees Montpelier will be paid $513,210 in “rent” during the coming year, but almost certainly eliminates the possibility state will exercise any of the four successive three-month renewals, which collectively could have pushed rental revenue contemplated in the agreement with the city over $1 million. Montpelier officials, who volunteered the property months ago, were among the last to learn that plans had changed.
Compiled from coverage by staff writers David Delcore, Eric Blaisdell, Keith Whitcomb Jr. and Steven Pappas.
