State leaders said National Guard troops were being deployed Friday to two dozen towns that have had no contact with the state government since a super storm flooded many parts of Vermont earlier this week.
Vermont Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn said Friday that state emergency management workers have not been able to establish communication with 24 towns, many of them in the northwestern counties of Franklin, Grand Isle and Chittenden.
The list of towns was not immediately available from the State Emergency Operations Center on Friday.
Flynn said that, because this portion of Vermont was not hit as hard by the flash floods as other parts of the state, the towns there might not need any outside assistance and therefore have not reached out.
“Probably just because they don’t have a lot to tell us,” he said during Gov. Phil Scott’s news conference Friday morning. “But we’re not relying on that. We’re going to continue to try to make sure we have contact.”
Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison asked municipal officials to contact the State Emergency Operations Center if they need any help in the wake of the natural disaster, which has damaged homes, businesses, public infrastructure, crops and claimed at least one life.
“Whatever it is — food, water, transportation, infrastructure or supplies — please make your needs known so we can start problem-solving with you,” Morrison said at the news conference.
She then announced that National Guard troops would be sent to towns that have not been heard from since the storm, which brought record-breaking rainfall around the state beginning on Sunday.
Gov. Phil Scott said a National Guard liaison will be sent to these towns, so the state can gather information in person rather than relying on emails or phone calls.
“We don’t want to wait for that,” Scott said. “Obviously, something’s being missed.”
Mark Bosma, spokesperson for the emergency operations center, told VTDigger the center had emailed all 252 local communities in Vermont after the storm hit to ask if they needed any assistance. He said towns are not required to report to the center how they fared in the storm, but state officials especially want to know if they suffered flood damage and need any resources.
