Hurricane Irene clean up in Bethel Vermont

cathijosephine and I spent Friday and Saturday digging mud out of people's basements in Bethel. Helping people recover from a hurricane is far more satisfying than my job. It's also a much better way to exercise than a stationary rowing machine. And you meet awesome people.

I would say the town of Bethel is doing pretty well. They have fully stocked stores of every type, and have a bunch of volunteers coming in. The roads getting into town are fine, you don't need a 4x4 or anything.

I don't know about the 12 towns in Vermont that were at least partially cut off by flooding.

There was one house that was gone, collapsed except for its roof. The one next to it had maybe a third of its basement washed out from under it, along with an incredible amount of dirt. Many houses that are unbelievably still standing, with quantities of cleaning that very much require many hands.

I have thought a lot about what I'd need to get through an emergency. One of the things I learned this weekend is that I have not begun to prepare for recovering from an emergency.


I was very concerned that if Irene had just been farther East, the same damage could've happened to my home. Having been there, I agree with zzbottom's assessment. Vermont is more vulnerable to this particular type of flooding because there is nowhere for the water to spread out and dissipate. You have rivers with a mountain on one side, and a mountain on the other side, and a tiny flat area where you build houses in between. So when you drop 11" of water on the state, you get impressive flooding. Last time they got a flood like this was 1927. This was the first time I heard the term "flatlanders".


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