Vyto Starinskas / Staff Photo
A house that was destroyed by a flood during Hurricane Irene remains in the river near Route 100 in Rochester on Wednesday. Homeowner Joh Grahm, right, gets help from friends Brad Leathers, in window, and Ed Wissner removing items from the home. Grahm said he was in the home during the flood and crawled up the floor to safety in rushing water.
By THATCHER MOATS
VERMONT PRESS BUREAU
BURLINGTON - The Federal Emergency Management Agency ramped up its effort Wednesday to assess the damage to homes, businesses and public infrastructure from flooding this week, and the Shumlin administration hopes President Barack Obama will make a disaster declaration for some counties within days, a crucial step before Vermonters can get federal money for repairs and temporary housing.
“We’re really making a push today on the assessments,” said Billy Penn, a FEMA spokesman based in Burlington.
FEMA officials traveled in two helicopters Wednesday, one provided by the Vermont National Guard and one by the Massachusetts State Police, Penn said.
Their first priority was major damage to homes, said Penn.
“What they’ll do is chopper them into an area, a local police force will pick them up, and drive them through an area and then go to another area,” said Penn. “We use the chopper to speed this up. We want to do this as quickly as possible because we know people are hurting.”
Vermont received an emergency disaster declaration early Monday that made the state eligible for the food, blankets, diapers and medical supplies that have been shipped to Vermont during the past two days aboard about 50 FEMA tractor-trailer trucks.
But before FEMA can get cash into the hands of homeowners and help the Small Business Administration get loans to Vermont businesses, FEMA and Vermont officials must assess the damage caused by Irene and then apply for a disaster declaration.
Gov. Peter Shumlin will forward the request to Obama, who has to give his approval, said Penn.
“When enough damage is assessed, it goes to the president, and if it’s a sufficient amount of damage, then the president declares a disaster,” said Penn. In addition to the teams being transported by helicopter, Penn said 14 FEMA teams were also assessing public infrastructure damage with state and local officials.
Once a disaster is declared, money for individuals becomes available quickly, said Penn.
“After a declaration the person simply has to make a phone call or use a computer, or a smart phone and let us know what the damages are,” said Penn. “We send an inspector out that looks at it with them, makes a quick determination on what it would take to make it safe and livable and then we can cut a check in a matter of a few days.”
Penn said FEMA may pay for temporary housing in some cases, but that doesn’t mean the well-known FEMA trailers will be shipped to Vermont.
Disaster declarations are made based on county, and Penn did not want to predict whether Vermont counties would qualify. But he pointed out that seven counties qualified for both individual and public assistance after the spring flooding, and in many areas of the state, Irene left behind much greater damage.
Jeb Spaulding, Shumlin’s secretary of administration, said he expects Vermont to receive the disaster declaration, and believes for some counties that may happen in just a few days.
“We hope to have some approvals for a major disaster declaration for public and individual assistance acted on in a matter of days,” said Spaulding.
Craig Fugate, the top official at FEMA, visited Vermont Tuesday and viewed some of the damage with Shumlin and Vermont’s congressional delegation. Spaulding said Fugate made a commitment to quickly respond to the request for a declaration. FEMA already had a presence in Vermont because of the spring flooding.
Before Irene, Penn said, the number of FEMA employees was down to a little over 100. Now it’s 171, he said and “a bunch more” are on the way.
He wasn’t sure how many would eventually respond to Vermont.
FEMA’s joint field office in Burlington occupies the first floor of a large brick building on Lakeview Avenue. The same floor houses state officials because the Vermont Emergency Management Division was flooded out of its Waterbury offices on Sunday. At the command center, dozens of state and federal employees from numerous agencies sat in front of computers in cubicles and at tables Wednesday.
FEMA employees wheeled carts with dozens of laptop computers and printers from the parking lot into the command center.
“Nobody wants people wait for assistance, so they’re working hard and we’re working hard to bring it all together,” said Penn.
AID GOES TO TOWNS
Vermont National Guard was in high gear Wednesday, with more supplies, helicopters and soldiers available than at any point since Irene hit Sunday, according to Lt. Col. Lloyd Goodrow, a spokesman for the Guard.
“We are in the delivery business,” Goodrow said Wednesday morning.
Twenty more tractor trailer trucks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrived overnight, said Goodrow, adding to the 30 that arrived Tuesday.
The trucks carried meals, blankets, medical supplies, water and diapers, said Goodrow.
The Guard now has 565 soldiers devoted to the aftermath of Irene – up from 350 on Tuesday – and some of them were at Camp Johnson in Colchester unloading the trucks and putting supplies on pallets, so trucks and helicopters can transport them to Vermont communities, said Goodrow.
“We expect this to be going on non-stop throughout the day and probably tomorrow,” said Goodrow.
The Guard has eight Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters at its disposal capable of airlifting supplies.
The Guard had two Tuesday and prior to that had six smaller helicopters, said Goodrow.
None of the larger helicopters belong to the Guard. The Guard’s six Blackhawks have been unavailable because they were deployed to Iraq.
Vermont received Blackhawks and Chinooks from Illinois and New Hampshire this week.
Goodrow said the Guard’s ability to respond was not hampered by the lack of its Blackhawks because two helicopters arrived from out-of-state Tuesday – the same day the supplies from FEMA arrived on trucks.
“We had nothing to deliver until yesterday, so it actually worked out pretty well,” he said.
Air operations were being carried out to Plymouth, Mendon and Killington at about noon Wednesday, according to Vermont Emergency Management. Supplies were scheduled to then go by air to Granville, Hancock, Marlboro, Pittsfield, Plymouth, Stockbridge, Strafford and Wardsboro.
Air National Guard crews were also loading provisions Wednesday onto helicopters to supply Vermont communities out of a small airport in the town of Fair Haven.
Ground crews worked at the Fair Haven Air Park, just east of the New York state line.
The helicopters are being loaded there, and the supplies of water, food and other supplies are being carried into mountain towns to the east.
Vermont emergency officials say emergency road access has been restored to all but one town, but helicopters are still going to be used to ferry supplies to compliment truck deliveries.
Mark Bosma, a spokesman for Vermont Emergency Management, said getting supplies to hard-hit towns and establishing access to the one remaining isolated town, Wardsboro, were the top priorities Wednesday.
Chris Cole, of the Vermont Agency of Transportation, said VTrans employees, about 20 Guard soldiers, and three contractors were working to fix Route 100 to provide road access to Wardsboro.
He said that work will be done by the end of the day Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENTAL TOLL
Four teams from the Environmental Protection Agency, Vermont’s Hazardous Materials team and Department of Environmental Conservation visited the hardest-hit areas of the state Wednesday to make early assessments of Irene’s environmental toll, according to Vermont Emergency Management.
Three of the teams are traveled by ground and one by air. They will planned to review water and wastewater facilities for damage and take an inventory of tanks and other water and wastewater hazards. In particular, they were looking for chemicals and other hazardous materials that have leaked, or are in danger of doing so.
“There are just contaminants everywhere,” said Bosma.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.