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Rick Dente thought this might be the end. The 77-year-old owner of Dente’s Market in Barre was trying to save what he could in his family store as flood waters rose on Monday night. The store has been in business since 1907 and had survived previous disasters. But Dente, the affectionately nicknamed “Mayor of North Barre,” didn’t realize that this time was different. He was suddenly in water up to his neck, pinned to a door, his tired legs giving out.
Just when Dente thought it was over, three tenants who lived above his store came down, ropes around their waists. They banged open the door and rescued the exhausted shopkeeper.
“Someone was watching over me,” Dente told me on Saturday, standing inside his mud filled market.
When the flood waters receded this week, volunteers streamed into Montpelier and Waterbury and other flooded Vermont communities to help muck out. But Barre, the Granite City, has until now been hauling itself back to life largely on its own. The flood left the downtown covered in deep mud. The city public works department spent days sending snowplows through the streets to clear the mess. Some streets are still impassable. The city is under a boil water notice.
Saturday was the first day that volunteers were invited into Barre. People came in droves. I came to the Aldrich Public Library where volunteers were lined up to get work assignments. Volunteer coordinators were sitting under tents with laptops dispatching people to homes that needed help. One tent was for volunteers willing to do light work, another was for heavy work.
I walked down Main Street in Barre talking to volunteers and business owners. Volunteers carrying mops, buckets, and shovels were moving up and down the street. My final stop was at the beloved Dente’s Market, whose owner who, like his city, nearly drowned but now has another chance.
