By Dan Dowling, regional communications manager

“It's pretty special to be able to help out in your hometown.”

Mary Morris, a Red Cross volunteer from Essex Junction, was one of more than 200 Red Crossers from Northern New England alone who supported the Green Mountain State after the Great Vermont Flood devastated several communities on July 10, 2023. In total, 315 trained Red Cross disaster workers descended on the state to help.

For Mary, there’s one particular memory that sticks with her one year later. She recalls the day when she and her team worked to bring supplies to the flooded Onion River Campground – a community that had been cut off from the town of Marshfield due to a washed-out bridge.

“We drove our four-wheel drive down to the folks at the campground who were still there. Their homes had been moved and we were dropping off food and care kits. They were the strongest, most resilient people. It was a powerful thing to be tromping through the woods to provide aid. Who would have thought we would be doing this?” she says.

Her group set up a tent for storm survivors to get clean-up kits, supplies and information, but her mission didn’t end there. She also helped support a Red Cross staff shelter. She says helping her fellow Vermonters through some very tough days, was not only fulfilling, but served as a learning experience too.

“I think the community at the Red Cross is great. The support is wonderful, and you can learn whatever you want. I love that,” Mary explains.

David Penny, also from Essex Junction, along with his wife Dottie, began deploying to disasters in 2005, starting with Hurricane Gustav in northern Louisiana. When the Vermont flooding hit, David volunteered with the government liaison team, working from the state emergency operations center in Waterbury.

“My job is to be the voice and the eyes of the Red Cross at the emergency operations center. The state tells me what its needs are, and I transfer that information to the leadership of the Red Cross disaster response,” he explains.

David says what made this deployment so different from all the others, was his familiarity with the state. By responding to a disaster at home, he had knowledge on how towns and roads connected to each other across the flooded areas.

“We have a lot of little remote towns in Vermont, so we do have to look at the map, but at least you are certainly familiar with the area. I never dealt with anybody I knew personally, but you know you are dealing with your fellow Vermonters,” he says.

Linda Nordman, of White River Junction, has been on the Upper Valley disaster action team for 13 years. You’ll typically find her providing care and comfort to people after they’ve experienced a home fire. Linda says that the damage she saw from the 2023 flood broke her heart.

“I joined when Irene hit in 2011, and it was the best thing I ever did. I just love being able to help people in a horrible time,” she says.

Linda remarked about the similarities she experienced between Tropical Storm Irene 12 years prior – and the Great Vermont Flood. After the historic storm ravaged the state this time, Linda was tasked with helping to support a shelter in Hartford for residents who had been forced from their homes. This was just one of four shelters set-up across the state where the Red Cross and our partners provided nearly 1,000 overnight stays for more than 200 residents. These shelters provide a safe space for storm survivors to seek refuge, rest, grab a hot meal, charge electronics and meet with our recovery caseworkers.

Throughout this operation, Red Cross caseworkers opened more than 350 cases, serving more than 700 Vermonters impacted by the storm. Since disasters can affect people differently, these caseworkers assessed the individual needs of each impacted Vermonter and provided individualized recovery help, including financial assistance, recovery planning and referrals to community partners for longer-term needs.

“I love what I do, and in my past, people have stepped up and helped me. I will never be able to pay it all back. After all the good that I have encountered in my lifetime, it does more good for my mental health than it will ever do for the Red Cross,” Linda says.

One year later, Lance Purnell, of Stowe, still sees evidence of the flooding around central Vermont. He was a new Red Cross volunteer, with the organization just a few months, when the storm hit. Still, he raised his hand without hesitation to help.

“The training really got me out on the road to see the affected areas and drop off supplies. Many people were more interested in helping their neighbors, even though their own houses were flooded,” he remembers.

Lance split his time between supporting the shelter in Barre and driving an emergency response vehicle through some of the hardest hit areas, handing out supplies and clean-up kits to storm-torn neighborhoods. In fact, the Red Cross distributed more than 34,000 relief items, including comfort kits and clean-up supplies, to more than 2,700 households across the state. Each day the waters receded – or a new community became accessible, volunteers, like Lance, made it their mission to bring help and hope to those struggling.

Red Cross disaster assessment teams reached 4,350 Vermont properties after the storm. These “boots on the ground” volunteers survey homes to gather critical information needed to plan recovery efforts. This means calculating how many homes have been affected, the extent of the damage and the overall impact to the disaster-affected community. Sadly, nearly 500 homes were either destroyed or suffered major damage in the Great Vermont Flood.

“Some the people are still recovering. Some got flooded a second time before they were fully recovered, but that is the nature of where they live. The Red Cross did a good job,” he says.

Disasters can cause clear physical damage – but sometimes the havoc they wreak is not as easy to see. Just ask Williston resident Anna Mary Zigmann. She’s a disaster spiritual care volunteer with the Red Cross. As an ordained chaplain, she helped Vermonters, who had just lost everything, work through their emotions by just letting them talk.

“I really try not to talk too much. I listen for a place where they might pause, because usually they want to talk. If they accept us into the home, then they really want to talk. That was my experience. Through the quietness of our visit, they can cry and start processing the loss,” she says.

Anna Mary was one of 54 specialized volunteers assigned to the operation trained to support the health, mental health and spiritual care needs of those Vermonters impacted by the storm. She recalls travelling to Windsor and remembers how different it felt than deploying out-of-state. This time it was personal – and she was touched by the community resiliency she saw around every turn.

“I went to a town where I had lived for years, and I saw it destroyed by these floods. Everywhere I looked, I saw firefighters, road crews and police. Everybody was out there, and I was so moved by that, because they are the first ones out there and they stay until the job is done.”

On the one-year anniversary of this historic storm, we are reminded that Vermonters are and always will be Vermont Strong.