Devestated

By now most of you have heard about the flooding up here in Vermont due to the tropical storm.

I feel like it was a dream.  I am in an exhausted daze.

Roads are gone.  Buildings are gone.  Cars are gone.  Businesses are gone.  People are gone.

I know just a few days ago I blogged about how this hurricane would not be a big deal, that people were over reacting.  And that we were not preparing at all for any natural disasters.

No amount of preparations would have saved us, our town, our state, our neighbors, our friends from the devastation that was caused this weekend.

Our friend's house was swept away.

Our friend's car was swept away.

Our friend's business is ruined.

Our bridge is gone, hundreds of people are stranded.

This is just in our town.

Across our small state the devastation is even worse.  People lost everything.

Watching the water was amazing.  Within an hour we watched it rise over 30 feet.  Cars and trucks and dumpsters and propane tanks floated down the river, crashing in to our beautiful, historical bridge.

This is our bridge on a normal day:

This was our bridge yesterday afternoon, the water had risen so high it was going over the bridge:

And this is what we woke to find this morning:

 

We spent hours outside yesterday in the pouring rain standing with our neighbors in shock.  Hundreds of Vermonters in our little town just standing and watching, open mouthed.  As the water got closer and closer to the bridge we all ran to whichever side of it our homes were on.  We were fortunate--the people on the other side of the bridge are literally stranded.  Their only routes out have all been damaged.

This morning, after minimal sleep in our powerless house, we finally got up out of bed to survey the damage.  The water had blessedly receded but all along yards, our golf course, our neighborhood streets there is water damage, left over junk that floated down the river; a flatbed truck, a refrigerator, and so many propane tanks litter our little town, not to mention regular garbage and literally tons of sludge.

But as we stood out there again this morning, my husband and I, we were so thankful that our house was not touched, that our loved ones all survived.  We knew our community, our state, known for it's hard working residents and camaraderie will come together and rebuild.  In Vermont, authenticity is all, we do not pretend to be real, we are real.  We will join together, helping our neighbors rebuild, it is the only thing we know how to do.

Healing,
Granny