BARRE CITY — At the Barre Auditorium, where the Red Cross has staged its emergency shelter, Leo Haggerty, a disaster action team captain with the nonprofit, said he got a call this morning instructing him to head to Barre.
He recalled asking his supervisor if this would be a “standby” operation, where a shelter gets ready but awaits word about whether to open.
“I was told ‘no,’” he said with a laugh. “You have four hours to get out there and get open.’”
The auditorium can probably accommodate up to 300 people, Haggerty said, and the Red Cross has that many cots if need be. Around 5 p.m., he said he guessed at least 17 or 18 people had already checked in, but he said he expected to see that number rise significantly with downtown Barre already experiencing major flooding.
And as he spoke to a reporter, at least a half-dozen people trickled in to register. “I’m stranded!” one man exclaimed as he walked in.
The shelter staged at Barre will accommodate anyone, Haggerty said: those passing through who find roads impassable, people experiencing homelessness, or anyone whose home is flooding.
Animal companions are also welcome. The Central Vermont Disaster Animal Response Team is next door, in Barre’s ice rink, ready to shelter pets.
But there is one growing worry: getting people to shelter in the first place.
“We’re kind of seated in here, the flooding is all around here,” Haggerty said. “So there’s only a limited ways to get into here right now.”
Jesse Shaw, a man wearing a Red Cross blanket, told a reporter outside the auditorium that the ride to Barre from Montpelier, where he had been staying with a relative, had been “treacherous.”
“The roads were flooded out. There were splits and tears in the concrete, cars stopped completely from the deluge. And now we’re just here,” he said. “And I’m just really grateful to be safe and sound here.”