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Community Recovery
Some 225 Vermont municipalities were impacted by Tropical Storm Irene, with approximately 45 incurring severe damage. Eleven months after Irene hit, the final cost of recovery is still being tallied. Yet the sheer magnitude is stretching many town budgets, some many times their annual totals.
While assessing damage and mourning loss, communities have come together to re-imagine and rebuild for the future. Slowly, they are repairing roads, developing new communication strategies, signing cooperative agreements with neighboring towns, and prioritizing new projects.
Resources for Communities
This page contains information on funding and assistance that may help your community in your recovery and rebuilding efforts.
Additionally, please review the funding and technical assistance resources that FEMA has identified and developed including the Vermont Resource Guide and companion Recovery Project Matrix. The Vermont Resource Guide offers more than 800 sources of funding or technical assistance to be used by communities, individuals and businesses recovering from disasters. The Recovery Project Matrix is a tool designed to accompany the Guide and provides a table of specific recovery projects matched to organizations that support that type of work.
Current grant opportunities include:
Community Recovery Partnership
In an effort to provide communities with additional recovery support, Governor Shumlin launched the Community Recovery Partnership to better understand the short and long-term recovery needs of communities and develop a plan for long-term community recovery.
Community Recovery Partnership Report - Released October, 2012, this report provides a summary of the 12 community meetings attended by over 500 Vermonters impacted from Irene and the stories they shared, the lessons learned and next steps being initiated.
During an event, FEMA has several different Emergency Support Functions (ESF) and # 14 deals with Long Term-Community Recovery. This function addresses ongoing community recovery needs by taking a holistic, long-term view, bringing the community together to assist in identifying key projects that will be important for successful rebuilding, and coordinating federal, state and community resources.
To determine which communities may receive this assistance, FEMA evaluates impact to the community as well as the resources and capacity available within the community. In Vermont, Wilmington and Waterbury received this assistance. More information on FEMA’s work in these towns can be found:
Final Report for Wilmington
Final Report for Waterbury
Click here for a video of how FEMA connected project champions in Wilmington and Waterbury to funding partners.
FEMA also provided support in Brattleboro around housing issues after over 200 units of a affordable housing and a mobile home park were severely impacted by the storm and it became clear that a long-term plan to relocate these homes was necessary. For more information, please review the final report.
Case Studies
While facilitating Community Recovery Partnership meetings, individuals, towns leaders, and business owners asked “what have others done that worked?” In response, we have begun to compile a list of case studies on various topics – from preparation to response to mitigation. If you have a case study you would like to share or one you would like see developed, contact Chris Cochran (chris.cochran@state.vt.us).
Stories
Check out our Facebook page and learn more about how communities are rebuilding and how you can help.
FEMA also has also worked to capture community recovery efforts in their media library.