After the Flooding, Relief Efforts Sprout Like Mushrooms

Rainbow Bridge Community Center in Barre is serving as a clearinghouse for donated goods. Credit: Anne Wallace Allen ©️ Seven Days

Elizabeth Parker, the senior warden of Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Montpelier, knows she’s lucky that her church sits slightly higher than ground level and didn’t get the worst of the flooding that damaged so many buildings in Montpelier on July 10.

But the water did rise enough to soak the wooden floorboards of the church, a landmark built in 1864 whose churchyard is a popular green gathering place downtown. It also flooded the basement. Parker estimates it’s going to cost $500,000 to restore the building, which is used by 135 parishioners and a handful of community groups.

Christ Episcopal has flood insurance, but its leaders need to find $100,000 to pay the deductible. Parker has created a GoFundMe campaign for flood mitigation and repairs, just as many Montpelier businesses have done for themselves. She’s hoping that people whose lives have been touched by the church will give generously.

“This old church is a place where people come to restore themselves,” said Parker, who has been with the church since she first moved to Vermont in 1979. The ashes of her daughter, who died in 2020 at age 26, are scattered in the church’s memorial garden. “It’s a sacred space.”

Nearly two weeks after floods devastated parts of Vermont, fundraising efforts have proliferated. State and federal loan programs are available to homeowners and business owners in the hardest-hit areas.

To qualify for individual assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, claimants must be located in a county that is part of FEMA’s disaster declaration. Initially Chittenden, Lamoille, Rutland, Washington, Windham and Windsor were included; on Friday, Gov. Phil Scott announced that Caledonia and Orange counties have been added. But there are few grant programs, particularly for the businesses that will be facing expensive repairs. On Friday, Scott announced a $20 million grant program for businesses and said he hoped there would be more money in the future.

Downtown Montpelier on Wednesday Credit: Anne Wallace Allen ©️ Seven Days

In the days after the flood, residents and fundraising veterans took the job of raising money into their own hands. Leaders in Montpelier created the Montpelier Strong Recovery Fund, a partnership between the Montpelier Foundation and the downtown business group Montpelier Alive that is dedicated to the needs of Montpelier businesses. By Friday, it had raised $800,000, said John Hollar, a cofounder. His neighbor gave $100,000 as one of the first donors.

The goal is to get the money out quickly, Hollar said on Friday. Initially, the fund will award grants of $4,000. The deadline to apply for the first round is Monday, July 24.

“We’re not going to ask for a lot of information, just whether they have had significant losses of property or inventory and whether they have an intention to remain in business,” Hollar said. “In the next round, if we can raise more money, the questions will be a little more detailed to get at need.”

Montpelier Strong is working closely with the downtown business group Montpelier Alive, which has received donations from across the country, many from foundations or large companies with offices in Vermont, said the group’s executive director, Katie Trautz. Individual gifts are pouring in, too.

“Many places outside of Vermont have suffered big natural disasters. I get the sense these West Coast foundations have a sense of what we are going through,” she said.

Another effort is creating a fund aimed at helping businesses throughout Vermont. On Wednesday, a group of mostly Capital City-area heavy hitters held an event in Barre to launch the Vermont Main Street Flood Recovery Fund. The statewide reach is important, because in the days after the flood, complaints arose that the private donation response gave Montpelier —a relatively wealthy community with many well-heeled donors who were eager to help — an unfair advantage over Barre, a city with a higher poverty level and a lower-profile set of community fundraisers.

Barre, too, has its own fundraising effort — the Barre Community Relief Fund, which was launched on Monday. Organizer Aimée Green, who is executive director of local business group Barre Area Development, said the money will go to individuals, businesses and organizations in Barre.

“I don’t think there can be too much philanthropic activity right now,” Green said.

The Vermont Community Foundation and Vermont Public joined forces to launch VT Flood Response & Recovery Fund 2023, using the reach of the broadcaster to appeal to donors. The campaign, which runs through July 23, is to benefit individuals, farms, businesses and communities. Dan Smith, president and CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation, said on Friday that the effort had raised $3 million.

There are also countless other efforts large and small to raise money and to organize volunteers who have turned out by the thousands to help people remove the mud and debris left by the floodwaters. Those volunteers are also preparing meals, organizing donations, coordinating the exchange of essential equipment like fans and dehumidifiers, and providing an array of other services. The state has created a website where people can register to volunteer, and the governor’s office is also taking donations.

Cassandra Hemenway, managing editor of the Bridge, said the newspaper isn’t applying yet for a business grant, even though it’s lost most of its advertisers to the flood and has had to switch to online-only publication. The previously biweekly paper is providing daily online coverage of the flood recovery efforts.

“We’re not equipped for that,” said Hemenway, who writes stories herself and uses freelancers, some unpaid.

Before the flood, the paper had applied for grants from Vermont foundations, and Hemenway’s hoping those come through. But she said it hadn’t occurred to her to look to any of the new flood-response funds for help.

“If you look in the face of the people who had businesses downtown, they are facing an even more existential threat than we are the moment,” she said. “We want to wait and let businesses that really received substantial damage apply for it first.”

Parker, at Christ Episcopal Church, said a parishioner is looking into FEMA loans, family foundations and other ways of paying the insurance deductible. She estimates it will take $500,000 to repair the church. Meanwhile, she’ll be giving her first sermon on Sunday at the congregation’s new temporary home, the Old Meeting House in Montpelier.

“We have a long way to go,” she said.

Here’s a sampling of major efforts for those looking to contribute: