Report Catalogs Vermont’s Growing Litany of Disasters

Seven Days: A New York-based nonprofit that helps communities adapt to the climate crisis released a report on Thursday about the impact of a decade of disasters on Vermont.

The Vermont Atlas of Disaster seeks to highlight how battered the state has been by extreme weather in recent years and to underscore the need for investments in climate resiliency.

The organization that produced the report, Rebuild by Design, was established at New York University after Hurricane Sandy and has helped a dozen communities around the world adapt to the climate crisis.

“We really understand what you are going through right now,” Amy Chester, the group’s managing director, said. “We know that it’s not going to be very easy to rebuild, and it takes a very, very long time. ”

The report analyzes data from 2011 to 2021 but also addresses flooding from the past month and the December 2022 winter storm that knocked out power to thousands. The group found that Vermont is seventh in the nation in terms of the number of recent federal disaster declarations, with 17. That climbs to 19 when more recent storms are included. The state ranked fifth in the nation in per capita disaster assistance; its $370 million in aid works out to nearly $600 per person. Read more>>

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