These days, I’m working in a town clerk’s office, Greensboro, Vermont, population approximately 827. With summer folks, the population swells to three times.
Yesterday, the phone rang all day. We propped the door open, and people wandered in with questions.
Can I get to Craftsbury? Which roads are out? I have a dump truck; want me to haul fill? I’ve lost everything; do you have extra clothes, shoes, blankets?
Selectboard members set up a triage system to patch roads where anyone was stuck. Farm roads were prioritized for milk trucks. All day long, Vermont Public Radio updated us. Montpelier, beloved capital city, is underwater, threatened by a dam where waters rose precipitously.
Late afternoon, the selectboard chair rummaged for leftover potato chips from the July 4th celebration. By then, the sun had emerged. The July day was hot, redolent with blooming roses. I had my own petty worries: my car was low on gas, and I’ve kicked a front brake repair too far down the road, and I’ll need to find a mechanic stat, and who I’ll find isn’t yet clear to me. Later, I’ll call my brother and talk about my parents while weeding my neglected garden. For some time, though, we stood in the parking lot, breathing in sunlight, waiting for a contractor to look at one of the town’s paved roads that’s severed in multiple places, the asphalt broken into multiple chunks. When could he get here with an excavator and put that back together?
A friend drove up and told us about mutual friends in a nearby town. They had been out in the stormy night. Travelers on I-89 had been diverted off the interstate and wound up driving through the backroads of a rural town they didn’t know. By flashlight and headlamp, in a driving rain, water roaring down hillsides, the residents directed the strangers to a safe haven, where they weathered the night.
Stony Soil Vermont 
Holiday time and bad weather are not a good mix. Wherever we go on holiday most of us expect it to be better than home and certainly with no problems!
I love “…. I’ve kicked a front brake repair too far down the road….”! Prayers for safety.
I did find a willing mechanic to fix my brakes this morning. 🙂
So frightening. No one quite understands the threat and damage of flood water until you experience it first hand. Holding you alumina my thoughts.
❤️❤️❤️❤️
I’m so sorry for all the damage these rains and floods have caused. It is so hard recovering from events like this, and eventually it usually wears on folks after awhile. I hope your small community continues to hold together and help one another.
So true…. I’m really hoping to keep things on the positive side.
Continued prayers for all affected and for your beautiful capital city and state.
🌻🌻
Thank you all for your kind thoughts. Poor Montpelier remains underwater. Such a long haul to begin putting things back together….
Jeez, it’s hard to believe. “Muddy Waters” literally….
Prayers for the people of Vermont. I’m so sorry.
How awful! I hope the forecast is for sunny skies to help dry things out!
Me, too!!
May this weekend’s rains be gentle and light.
I hope so! Drizzling again already.
Sorry for your troubles.
You certainly had your share of Mother Nature’s capricious behavior.