At the Bethany United Church on Randolph's Main Street the church bell rang at 7 p.m. to commemorate the first anniversary of Hurricane Irene, while across the street at Chandler Music Hall hundreds of people gathered to celebrate the recovery work that's been done and recommit themselves to the work that remains.
For some state residents, it was block parties and parades. For others, a moment of silence. For still others, just another day of cleaning up the mess. But all remembered Irene on Tuesday.
Gov. Peter Shumlin called for the bell-ringing commemoration as residents reflected on how far the state has come since the remnants of Irene unleashed the worst flooding in recent memory, killing six people, wiping out hundreds of homes and businesses and cutting off towns with miles of wiped-out roads and dozens of destroyed bridges.
At Chandler hall, Shumlin, the state's congressional delegation and other dignitaries gathered to thank the thousands of volunteers who responded to the storm.
Many residents are still hurting, Shumlin said. Some are still waiting for the Federal Emergency Management Agency "to tell them something they can believe," he said.
AP
In this Aug. 17, 2012 photo, Janet Lumbra looks over the remains of her home in East Granville, Vt. For some, there will be block parties and parades. For others, a moment of silence. Or it might be just another day of struggling to clean up the mess. But if there’s one unifying event to mark the first anniversary of Irene, it'll probably be the 30 seconds of ringing of bells in churches and town halls across Vermont that Gov. Peter Shumlin has requested for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012, a year to the day after the storm changed Vermont forever.
Close The landlocked state suffered the worst damage along Irene's trail of destruction, which left more than 65 people dead from the Caribbean to Canada. Cars tumbling like toys in roiling waters and covered bridges crumbling against muddy waves remain among the most indelible images of the storm.
Shumlin spent Tuesday on the last leg of a four-day tour of 22 Vermont communities hit hard by the storm. In Waitsfield, he joined townspeople for an impromptu midday celebration of the remarkable resurgence that has occurred since floodwaters from the Mad River severely damaged roads and buildings in the historic village.
Outside a new restaurant opening this week where one was flooded out by Irene, Shumlin praised all the work done but said some residents still need their neighbors' help recovering from the storm.
"Reach out to the people you know still are hurting, knock on their door and say, 'I am here to help,'" the governor said.
The fact that people are still hurting is obvious at businesses such as the White River Valley Campground in Stockbridge, where owners Rebecca and Drew Smith say they're still overwhelmed by all the work needed to get the place back open.
"We need contractors, we need electricians, we need plumbers," Rebecca Smith said.
But the couple said they have no means to pay for all that's needed. They've been out of business since the storm and have missed their mortgage payments the past two months.
It's easy to see by walking around the campsites by the placid White River, and through the rustic recreation hall, why the campground drew some families to come back every year for decades.
But now the grounds are covered in silt, the root balls of upended birches and junk â€" some of it was the Smiths'; the rest was deposited on their property when the river turned to a raging torrent.
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