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By Michael Bielawski
Tomorrow morning on the Statehouse steps there will be “The People’s Demands for a Just Flood Recovery” aimed to reshape public policy to mitigate future flood impacts throughout the Green Mountain State.
“Grassroots groups on the front lines of flood relief will gather to share demands for state-level action towards a just flood recovery,” the report on VermontBiz states.
Those who are expected to participate include a representative from Northeast Kingdom Organizing [not species who yet], Michelle Eddleman McCormick of Cooperation Vermont, Amy Lester of the Vermont Workers’ Center, and Lena Greenberg of Community Resilience Organizations.
The event will begin at 9:30 at the Statehouse steps. The release continues, “Grassroots organizations and community mutual aid groups are the first to mobilize when disaster strikes—drawing on relationships, local knowledge, and that combination of grit and care that makes us Vermonters. In a time of ever-unfolding disaster, we recognize the need to balance short-term needs and long-term transformation.”
Hard infrastructure
The report calls to “Ensure all new infrastructure is built to withstand flooding and other climate disasters. Invest in roads, wastewater treatment, water systems, and food infrastructure that is reliable under climate stressors and ensures people can meet basic needs during crisis.”
The state has already mapped out where flood waters are expected to flow when they occur throughout the state, they can be looked at here.
The report also wants more careful planning for future housing. It states, “Develop watershed-wide river management and ecosystem restoration plans that account for and minimize flood impacts. Adjust statewide development standards and incentives to prevent new building in floodplains, and incentivize climate-resilient construction. Buy out homeowners who are willing to move.”
The governor has been continuing to update the public on recovery efforts since the latest round of flooding which occurred right about the anniversary of last year’s dramatic flooding.
In a press conference, Scott addressed those who are still anxiously waiting for state aid about two weeks since the flooding. He said, “This time around, FEMA is moving on a more traditional path. So while it may seem like it’s taking a while for damage to be assessed, it’s important to remember it’s only been two weeks since the storm.”
VDC highlighted that the Town of Plainfield in particular was hit hard this time around, meaning the rains came just several miles from repeating another devastating impact on the City of Montpelier after last year’s floods.
State employees specific to flood relief?
On the agenda is to consider the creation of “permanent positions to respond to the needs of Vermonters impacted by climate-fueled disasters like flooding, landslides, heat waves, and more.” It continues that they would like to see the state take action to refine its flood disaster response strategies more specific to the needs of rural communities.”
Climate change rhetoric
They would like to see future housing infrastructure itself be more resilient to flood impacts. The language in this section makes political statements about climate change.
It states, “Vermonters have the right to remain in their towns and neighborhoods as the changing climate increases the frequency of disasters and the loss of housing for poor and working-class people.”
Not everyone however is convinced that such assumptions about more frequent weather events are accurate. VDC’s Paul Bean recently weighed in on the matter, stating “All jokes aside are we really going to pretend that it’s normal Vermont has now been flooded substantially 3 times alone this summer? It’s not CLIMATE CHANGE as we’ve been taught, but a mix of not dredging the rivers and negative externalities of Geoengineering.”
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
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Categories: Community Events, Disasters and Emergencies, State Government
Hope all you climate deniers up in the NEK are enjoying the weather.
No one is denying it. What we are saying is that we can’t stop it. All the money and time spent on trying to stop climate change is wasted. We should be spending all that on what we need to do to survive it. If we don’t your grandchildren will be the ones suffering the most while you sit and pat yourself on the back for your wasted efforts to stop it.
The Hunga-Tonga volcano explosion of Spring ’23, the largest ever recorded on Earth, put 10% of the normal amount of water vapor into the upper atmosphere. Water is a much more potent greenhouse element than carbon. Might explain why the past two years seem extreme. 😉
“Mark”, then what do you suggest? Furthermore, not everyone here is a “climate denier”. Another label rather than a descriptive of what, exactly, people believe.
For all you ‘Climate Alarmists,’ the raining in the NEK was indeed heavy and sadly destructive, but this was not a result of ‘Climate Change.’ It was a very heavy rain, and that’s it. Climate change is not caused by human activity, and efforts and legislation to garner money “…to fight climate change!…” are scams.
Climate change, as it has been for hundreds of millions of years, is caused by solar activity, earth axis movement, quakes and volcanoes, and the endless shifting of earth’s tectonic plates over a fluid molten core. The follies of humans might cause temporary weather anomalies, like the smog in Tokyo and Los Angles, but not climate change.
Do some serious study and homework on the real causes of climate change, alarmists, we can’t afford your ignorance…
(The Right Mark…)
weather warfare/// find the source//// terminate// take your climate change and shove it/////
Chem trails aren’t helping.
route 105 in the north east kingdom is a major truck route and can not be shut down for a very long time//// must be repaired soon///
As a sportsman I do not want to see the rivers and streams “channelized” to the detriment of fish and other wildlife. However, as a rational human being I believe that there are steps that can and must be done to preserve human life and property. I have driven all over central and northern VT for my business for the last 40 years and it is obvious that the waterways are comprimised from being full of rocks, dirt and debris. In Stowe, at Rickettson’s farm the pasture across the road from the barn has been ruined by letting the stream take over the field and depositing silt and debris. From Morrisville to Hardwick along Rt 15 and on the North Wolcott road are egregious examples of bad policy. The rivers are full of stones, dirt and debris, there is no place in the river for water. There are pastures, cornfields and hayfields that have been ruined or need extensive work to be productive-those landowners are the ones who should be able to sue the State to pay for the loss of value to their land. Just east of Hardwick on Rt 15 it is easy to see how the water, with no room in the river, cuts into the banks causing small and large landslides which deposit more dirt, rocks and trees into the river making the situation worse. The streambeds should be pushed up onto the banks to help contain the water and prevent further erosion. It might not cure the entire problem immediately but it would help to lessen the effects of the floods while a longer term solution is debated and tested. An effort like this would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not doing anything is costing hundreds of millions of dollars and causing immeasurable human suffering. Some rocks and trees could be situated for fish and wildlife but the current situation with all of the trees along the streams just waiting to float downstream in the next flood and plug up culverts, bridges and streams is just plain stupid.
edwwilson, thank you for incisive view and constructive suggestion.
Vermont had 80% open fields a hundred or so years ago. Now it’s 80% forested. Why not just let nature take its course and get out of the way? Move the cornfields, the hay fields, and pastures, to where it doesn’t flood.
I’d like our legislators to explain how spending so much money to cut CO2 emissions, to subsidize expensive solar and wind power, preventing people from using inexpensive fuel oil and natural gas to heat their homes in winter, and mandating electric vehicles, is going to stop the next thunderstorm and resulting flash flood that destroys people’s homes. Wouldn’t it be smarter to spend all that money helping those people move out of these flood plains?
Problem solved.
It seems, though, that our legislators are using our money to terminate us one way or another.
To Edwilson’s point, when we dredge streams and rivers on a large scale (as was done on a widespread level back in the 60s and 70s), the streams and rivers can no longer access their floodplain to spread out their heavy flows, drop their sediment load, and soak back in slowly. That sediment is from the upper reaches, from the hillsides and mountains, and is full of minerals and important components that build our soil. Hence why valley floors are so fertile and provide excellent farm land.
The river then moves faster in that deeper, narrower channel, so it can carry more water AND pick up more and larger particles. The rivers naturally fill up with sediment and trees and limbs again, the process NEVER stops. It is a dynamic equilibrium that the river is constantly seeking, it is never “in balance.” Every hole or trench that is dug out of a riverbed creates faster water – it will pull material in from upstream to fill that hole, and it will come from the bed, the banks, undermine an upstream bridge or road or culvert…you get the idea.
Dredging will not only remove the boulders and trees that are great fish habitat, it removes the bed of the river, where the fish lay their eggs in the gravel. Also, digging deeper into the hyporheic zone where the microscopic biome exists that quite literally feeds all life in the river.
In specific locations, limited and strategic removal of some gravel and trees is wise; but overall, dredging is not a long-term “fix” by any stretch of the imagination.
I humbly but urgently encourage folks to consider ways that each unique community can assess where their naturally-occurring floodplains are, and plant them as floodplain forests. Upstream of our town centers should be full of people installing rain gardens, managing storm water on their private property, building our soil so it has more absorptive power, and replacing hard surfaces with porous ones, directing water into infiltration areas – porous parking lots, for instance. Buildings and homes and infrastructure that can be raised or relocated, should be. Those that can’t, well, other options might have to be considered, like finding ways to work the landscape around them to accommodate high flows.
Sorry this is so long, but it’s my passion. The nature of Nature is “change.” We have to stop building/rebuilding with current or past storms in mind; we must plan for the weather we never expected to have.
I understand the build up of fertile soils in our river valleys but now those fields are being ruined and crops like corn and hay are being ruined by silt getting into the growing plants and making the crops unuseable. We do need floodplains to alleviate exceptionally high water but the towns and villages are not supposed to be THE floodplains. It sounds oh so good to talk about how wonderful nature is and how, if left alone, nature will cure all these problems. It is great when that happens but when letting nature take its course destroys lives and livelihoods it is time to react to alleviate the problem.
There is a story about a young farmer who scraped together enough money to buy a derelict farm. The buildings were falling down, the fields were strewn with boulders, the sugarwoods was overgrown and the farm animals were in poor condition. After many years of backbreaking work the young man grew older as he made the farm into a showplace. A new minister came to town and was going out to meet all the church members and asked the farmer if he could come to visit and see the farm. The answer was yes and the minister visited on a beautiful day. As they started the tour of the farm they stood on the front porch of the beautiful home looking out at farm buildings in beautiful condition and lush pastures, rock free and with magnificent animals grazing and the minister exclaimed “my, the Lord does beautiful work!” They walked on to the fields filled with corn and hay, obviously growing and healthy and the minister exclaimed “my, the Lord does beautiful work!” Then they walked into the sugarwoods that was very well kept with huge old maples and younger trees in all stages of growth and the minister exclaimed “my the Lord does beautiful work!” At this point the farmer could no longer hold back and said “Reverend, I agree that the Lord does beautiful work-but I wish you would have seen this place when he was working it by himself”.
The God of nature does indeed do beautiful work-but sometimes even God needs some help and we should pitch in-starting with the streams and rivers.
Re: “I understand the build up of fertile soils in our river valleys but now those fields are being ruined and crops like corn and hay are being ruined by silt getting into the growing plants and making the crops unuseable.”
This is not a ‘but now’ issue. Nature has been flooding ‘flood plains’ for eternity. Sometimes to a greater or lesser extent than what we’re witnessing today. That’s the nature of nature. It’s not, for example, the result of a recent (i.e., anthropogenic) increase in CO2 levels, at least not to the extent of requiring the speculative investment that is about to bankrupt us.
Can we engineer flood plains? Well, yes. But it depends on how much we’re willing to spend, which requires a risk/reward assessment. And that translates into a local decision. Is it, for example, less expensive to move the corn and hay fields to a less risk-adverse location? And what guarantees will you make that your landscaping actually works if you choose that path?
I don’t want to pay for someone else’s choices, that affect them locally, when I don’t ask them to do the same for me. I chose to not live in or near a flood plain.
And there’s the much bigger NIMBY problem with dredging out stream beds. When a stream bed is dredged, and the storm water passes through it more quickly, what happens downstream? The people living downstream must mitigate the experience of upstream landscaping.
I chose to not live in or near a flood plain. If anyone wants to avoid the circumstances listed above, don’t choose to live in a flood plain and expect your smarter neighbors to pay for your folly.
weather warfare was used in the vietnam war/// now what would be the purpose of doing this in vermont/// the amount of weather related destruction in this country the last ten years is huge/// it is time to stop the eight inch rainfalls////
Operation Tincup in reverse? The People demand our government give flood reperations now? In light of the illegals getting everything handed to them for simply stepping foot on our soil, flooded or burnt to a crisp, citizens really believe our malevolent overlords are going to help them recover? They will help by paying you pennies on the dollar for your property and wish you well. If you chose to stay, file some more paperwork, leave some more voice mail messages, and wait.
The national debt just kicked over to $35 trillion.
The Fed shrugged, will sit back and watch the fallout fall where it may.
CenterPoint – the energy supplier for Houston, TX – clobbered by Hurricane Beryl – submitted a bill for $1.8 billion for damages. Who do you think is going to pay for that? How do you think customers will pay for that?
The Maui fires happened in August 2023 – those people still have no compensation, empty lots, and no money to rebuild or resettle.
My heart goes out to those effected. Particularly, the salty natives who are caught up not only in flood damage, but the bureaucrat nightmare and liberal activism that only makes things muddier and far worse. God help us all because we are all on the hook for all the damages. Where is our Congressional delegation? Too busy financing wars overseas and propping up a skank for President while trying to deep six the other.
Re: “All jokes aside are we really going to pretend that it’s normal Vermont has now been flooded substantially 3 times alone this summer?”
Excuse me. But ‘Vermont’ hasn’t “…been flooded substantially 3 times alone this summer”. I’ve lived here in Vermont for almost 50 years and my house and businesses have NEVER flooded.
“Despite overwhelming evidence, because it didn’t happen to me, it didn’t happen” is probably the most accurate way to describe Boomer conservatism their is.
It’s not an ideological fallibility to concur that human-caused climate change is happening. If we are causing changes due to transferring gigatons of formerly sequestered carbon from underground into the atmosphere, the questions is: can it be minimized or reversed? We in progressive Vermont seem to think that we should set the example, even though our total contribution to the problem is statistically insignificant. What Vermont does, or even the whole US does will not matter when China is pissing over in their end of the pool.
Henny penny! The sky is falling!!! The sky is falling!!!
Hate to say it folks but you need to do due diligence on researching what Hegelian dialectics (create the problem so you have to some up with a solution), and an utterly false premise from start to finish on ‘climate change’ and what is causing it… and distracts us from the issue of the disaster capitalism this precludes… coming down the pike straight at us in the form of federal loans, buy outs (land grabs), loss of property (to the point of having to declare bankruptcy, or live in a tent), and oooooohhhhh la-la — all those gov’t contracts and filthy lucre attached… and the price is only: YOUR SOUL.
As long as you keep a hand on the spoon that is stirring the pot then you are part of the problem.
GOD is in charge of our lives… appeal to HIM to change what offends you… or…figure out what it is HE wants…and why you might be suffering such tribulations…in HIS creation…and get right with Him.
Geoengineering has everything to do with our ‘climate change’ — who benefits? qui bono? follow the money…
THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX that has been behind every war on the planet for the past 150 years…
Yup… all about disastor capitalism… and war/fear mongering… and wanting to control the world that God made… and by gar… grabbing what we can that will rust after we go… but hey… mcmansions, EVs, no trespassing signs, and 75% of Vermont inaccessible to Vermonters… due to the foreign landowners (CCP et al)… you got a commie world run by fascists….
And we denigrated Herbert Hoover and McCarthy… puh.
They were right…we’ve been invaded. And we are rolling out the carpet because we don’t want to offend anyone…