Updated at 3:38 p.m.
President Joe Biden has declared a major disaster in Orange and Caledonia counties related to last week’s floods, adding them to six already declared disaster counties in Vermont.
“We got good news today — that the president approved two additional counties, Caledonia and Orange,” Federal Emergency Management Agency coordinating officer William Roy said Friday at a press conference with state officials in Berlin. “FEMA continues to work with Vermont to assess the damages in the other impacted counties.”
The declaration is expected to unlock federal resources for Vermont residents in the affected counties.
A week ago, after pounding rain and rising rivers flooded Vermont towns, Biden declared a major disaster in six counties in the state: Chittenden, Lamoille, Rutland, Washington, Windham and Windsor.
That initial declaration was made via “imagery,” Roy said earlier this week. Since then, FEMA officials have been assessing damage on the ground to determine whether major disasters should be declared in other Vermont counties.
Friday’s declaration leaves six Vermont counties without a major disaster declaration: Addison, Bennington, Essex, Franklin, Grand Isle and Orleans.
Residents of those counties are currently ineligible for FEMA aid for any flood damage, but Roy raised the possibility that those counties could still be added to the disaster declaration.
“If your address is not in a declared county, you can still apply (for FEMA aid) online,” he said at Friday’s press conference. “Your application will be processed if your county is added at a later date.”
Officials urged residents to report damage by calling 2-1-1, a Vermont disaster aid hotline, and by notifying FEMA. According to Roy, there is no deadline for a county to be granted a disaster designation.
“It’s really important, especially if you’re in a county that hasn’t been designated yet, to report your damage to 2-1-1,” Gov. Scott said at the press conference. “If there’s one takeaway from the presser, it should be to report your damage.”
Rep. Carl Demrow, D-Corinth, said Friday that multiple Orange County municipalities and roadways had sustained significant damage. The town of Washington, he said, had been hit particularly hard: floodwaters had burst through an area dam, which “sent a whole bunch of water in through the village,” he said in an interview, prior to the revelation that Orange had been approved for disaster aid. “And so there’s an enormous amount of silt and debris in the village.”
Before the declaration, Demrow said, he had contacted U.S. Sen. Peter Welch’s, D-Vt., office and the governor’s office to seek assistance and had been urging residents to report their info to 2-1-1.
“We’ve got people here who need assistance and we’ve got people here whose lives have been changed by this flood,” Demrow said. “And we really hope that FEMA will be there for them.”
But in Orleans County, the lack of a disaster declaration remained “incredibly anxiety-producing,” said Rep. Katherine Sims, D-Craftsbury. “(For) people who have just, like, lost their homes or their businesses or both, to get that message that you’re ineligible is terrifying.”
She has been urging residents to report flood damage and has worked to coordinate communication between town clerks and state emergency officials.
In the rural, far-flung homes of Orleans County, flood damage may not be as centralized or immediately visible as, say, downtown Barre or Montpelier. Many residents worry that by asking for help they could be taking resources from harder-hit neighbors, Sims said, and some lack access to the internet and social media.
But even so, Sims said, the absence of a declaration has felt like a familiar snub.
“I think that taps into a longstanding sentiment, you know, (in) some of our most rural, remote, high-poverty regions,” said Sims. “That, like, we always get left behind.”
