Gov. Phil Scott has filed a formal request for federal disaster aid to help cover expenses resulting from a December storm that tore through the state and cut off electrical power to more than 75,000 homes and businesses.
Scott made the request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency; ultimately, it will be decided by President Joe Biden, according to the governor’s announcement on Tuesday.
Winter Storm Elliott hit Vermont from Dec. 22 through Dec. 24, bringing heavy wind, rain and cold temperatures that wreaked havoc with the state’s infrastructure, particularly electrical lines.
The storm was even worse than expected, according to the governor’s request.
“The wind gusts were even higher than predicted, topping out at 71 mph at the Burlington International Airport, the second-highest gust ever recorded at that location,” Scott stated in his request for funding.
Winter Storm Elliott’s estimated damage costs topped those of the five most recent winter storms in Vermont, according to Scott’s request.
Vermont needed at least $1.4 million in damage to be eligible for federal funding. The storm blew past that threshold, with an estimated $2.8 million in damages, according to Erica Bornemann, director of Vermont Emergency Management.
Scott’s request would provide aid to nine of Vermont’s 14 counties — Caledonia, Chittenden, Essex, Franklin, Grand Isle, Lamoille, Orange, Orleans and Washington counties. Although preliminary assessments report $2.8 million in damage, “I expect that, in the end, the total costs that are reimbursed as a part of this disaster will exceed that,” Bornemann said.
“The state and federal government verified enough damage to qualify for a declaration; from experience in previous similar disasters, we know costs incurred are often higher and Vermonters need the help,” Bornemann said in Tuesday’s announcement.
Scott’s request for funding is classified as a major disaster declaration, which, if approved, allows utilities to be reimbursed for up to 75% of costs for restoration and repairs necessitated by the storm, according to the governor’s announcement.
The combination of rain, wind, and a subsequent drop in temperature caused mass electrical outages around the state. Hundreds of customers in central Vermont had to wait at least five days for their power to return following the storm, and workers at the Washington Electric Co-op, based in East Montpelier, worked overtime through the Christmas holiday to restore power.
Climate change is bringing more and more intense storms to Vermont, state officials say, and small utilities in particular are bearing the brunt.
“It’s impossible for small utilities to survive in the pattern they’ve dealt with for the last two decades,” Michael Dworkin, founding director of Vermont law School’s Institute for Energy and the Environment, told VTDigger in January. “Whether they’ll be able to continue turns mostly on how severe a set of storm damages and climate changes we have to deal with.”
Dworkin himself lost electrical power for five and a half days at his East Montpelier home after the storm, and he moved temporarily to Plainfield to stay with his daughter.
Approval of the disaster aid could take a month or two, state officials said. The Vermont Emergency Management team expects President Biden and FEMA to sign off on the request, and then the funding will start to flow to utilities throughout the state.
“For most of the towns impacted by this statewide storm, it was one of the worst public and private utility disasters in recent Vermont history,” Scott wrote in his federal funding request.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated how long it generally takes for disaster declarations to be approved.