Stowe roads intact, but employees’ lives upended in storm

While Stowe fared better than other neighboring towns, there are spots in the local road infrastructure that may need to remedied in the future, public works director Harry Shepard said.

Moscow Road’s closure was due to a culvert that got overrun by the flood water. Meanwhile, Barrows Road saw some damage that may not be readily visible by people driving along it but included river embankment issues. Shepard said both of those areas will be looked at for future fixes.

Other than that, town officials chalked up much of the resiliency during the storm to recent infrastructure improvements — particularly, a new bridge on Stagecoach Road and a new box culvert on Cemetery Road.

While Stowe’ infrastructure held strong, the same could not be said for Stowe workers who live in other towns.

“We seemed to be fortunate. Our neighbors, not so much,” Jeff Clarke, co-founder of the Stowe Community Fund, told the board.

Stowe Community Fund, the evolution of the C-19 group that sprang into action at the beginning of the pandemic, has identified 24 employees in town and find them help.

Fifteen of those employees missed work for multiple days because the roads where they live were washed out by the flood, or their basements were flooded. The fund helped those employees who lost work wages by giving them money for gas and groceries.

Another nine employees suffered catastrophic losses of either their homes or their personal property, or both. The fund got them immediate financial help, but more will be needed.

The Fund noted, in an announcement sent out Tuesday, that most of those employees have had to move out, many of them sleeping on friends’ sofas as they look for new housing, a hard thing in Vermont these days.

Those who have flood insurance face a $10,000 deductible, which is not covered by the Federal Emergency Management Administration. One of them has used up all her savings to hire a professional to clean her house because oil leaked in during the flooding and still has to have her roof fixed, after shingles ripped loose during the storm.

One homeowner who did not get flood insurance because they were told they didn’t need it because their home wasn’t in a flood had everything on their first floor and in their basement destroyed.

And those with renter’s insurance are now discovering their insurance does not cover flooding.

“If you know people, and I think we all do know people who have been affected, please have them reach out to us,” Clarke said.

To learn more, visit the fund’s website at stowecommunityfund.org.