On the year anniversary of the July 10th flooding of 2023 another catastrophic event has impacted Vermont. This time the floods were less widespread targeting regions more north. Six inches of rain fell in the span of hours swelling rivers and streams. I woke this morning to images that were far too familiar and several people checking in to see how I’m doing on the anniversary of our home being flooded last year from a neighbor’s pond. Thank you for your prayers and supportive messages, it really helps. I went to bed last night not really knowing what was going to happen overnight. We got a little bit of rain early this morning, I’m not sure how much. The sad irony is that we do need some rain, just not inches upon inches all at once. While I am deeply grateful that we did not sustain any damage from the combination of the remnants of Beryl and the current system that was in place I am heartbroken by what I’m seeing today up north.

I saw images on Facebook with the usual caption talking about how we are #vermontstrong and we will get through this. The sad truth however is that while yes we are in fact Vermont strong we are also Vermont exhausted, Vermont weary, Vermont demoralized, Vermont disheartened…I could go on and on. Three major flooding events in twelve months. Four major flooding events in 13 years. This goes beyond what anyone can handle. Here are the “what’s so” of now. We are now living in what we feared as a result of climate change. We are now living in the time of survival of repeated natural disasters. We are now living in a world that is not reversible. It is too late for that. We can not change this. We can only adapt to it.

Those of us with the means to secure our homes and properties will do so. Those of us without means to repair our homes will be forced to leave. I’m not someone with those resources as my basement needs $80,000 of repairs and FEMA wants us to take out an SBA loan which we can not afford. These repeated flooding events have the potential to make finding secure housing even more difficult amongst the housing crisis that is already here.

What I see as the only way forward is to adapt to what is happening with better infrastructure that can handle flooding. This can be done in several ways:

1. Catchment and dispersement. Build arroyos (or something similar) to divert water to holding areas where it can then be dispersed to areas where it is needed. Wouldn’t it be amazing if floodwaters could be pipelined to places out west where drought has been prevalent for years?
2. Bigger culverts which can actually handle the capacity of rain that we are now receiving.
3. Landowners need the ability to manage their brooks & streams. Waterways are now so protected that a landowner can not even trim brush along the side of a stream without violating the law. The state needs to either loosen legislation to allow property owners the ability to dredge their brooks & streams if needed, OR, the state needs to develop a program to work with property owners of waterways for large scale water management. A current use type program if you will but for waterways and with a tax advantage to the land owner.
4. More flood control dams which will require eminent domain in order to get them constructed. I said what I said.

To quote my best friend Prima this morning when I checked in on her (she lives in Barre), “fresh water is the most valuable thing on earth and it’s destroying us.”

The time for climate change reversal is gone. The time for climate change adaptation is now.