A town on a mountain, surviving

 

By Cristina Kumka
STAFF WRITER
KILLINGTON — The chirping birds were drowned by noise of hurried workers rebuilding the key road.
The sounds on the new trail, at the top of Journey’s End Road in Mendon above a gaping hole on Route 4 this morning, were new.
The trail was created by people who couldn’t escape Killington, on Tuesday one of the state’s 11 towns blocked off from the rest of the world.
The trail was one of the only ways out.
Wednesday morning, the state opened Route 4 for people who needed out. Cars were not allowed into Killington. Later that day, because of Killington resident Craig Mosher and other local contractors, routes were cleared for daily egress and access in both directions on Route 4 headed east and west. 
Kip Dalury, who I sat with at Pico Mountain Resort Wednesday during my first trip up the mountain since the flood, said there were 200 cars lined up starting at the white church on the east end of Route 4 to get out of the mountain resort town.
Mostly tourists with out-of-state license plates, those cars are now all gone.
Suzie Dundas, Killington’s marketing and public relations manager, said when you visit Killington, you don’t expect to stay for a hurricane.
As I walked along the Journey’s End trail Wednesday morning, I thought about how this disaster situation was our war. We knew it and understood it and cared about it because it was in our face. We took ownership of it and have to recover from it. 
Sweating and fatigued already, carrying a bag of dog food and a can of gas for Dalury who would drive me around the town, I ran into a family sitting outside their home.
One of the men gave me a ride to Pico in his new Toyota.
Yesterday, Kip told me he was scared people would riot and steal.
The man, who I didn’t know because it wasn’t the time for names, said it was the exact opposite.
People in Killington are coming together, helping each other and the town is making progress because of Route 4.
Pittsfield on the other hand remains isolated I was told.
They are partying there, together, the man said.
Tuesday night, Killington economic director Seth Webb told residents there is a way and there is hope, Dalury said.
At a meeting at the Killington Elementary School, Webb started with a laugh, telling the crowd he drove in from Woodstock.
FEMA delivered MREs to the town via helicopter Wednesday, meals ready to eat, like the military eats when at war.
Earlier that day, the town’s fire station at the top of the access road acted as a command center, with town officials directing each other and directing supplies.
It was again, like a scene out of a movie.
One woman came out of the fire station, said it was a disaster with Facebook, the one way people were communicating.
Dalury said the town was lucky in a way - it was near a major Vermont city for food and supplies and a state transportation garage with excavators and had Mosher as its neighbor.
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Comments

[Brian C.]

Many good people helping via the trail off Journey's End. The sad part is that some jerk from CT is whining about the lawn and hassling the volunteers. I'm told he doesn't even own it. Regardless, how could one be that selfish ?

[Linda Gallagher]

My son and his wife were at the Killington meeting last night. They are residents of Pittsfield and teachers in Chittenden and are trying to figure out a reasonable way of getting to work next week without having to move out of their home while 4 is rebuilt...the bus stops planned won't work unless they walk, with their 3 year old son, for a very long way...WHY won't the bus stop at either Sugar and Spice, where they can be picked up by fellow employees or down at the stop light when the bus has to stop anyway??? Hoping they will take another look at that schedule...

[Tom Gilroy]

The people of Killington are great. This is what American exceptionalism is all about, work together and get it done. Mosher is a hero!

[Edward J. Clark]

Kip! All the best!