The Coming Storm
For a year, VTDigger, in partnership with FRONTLINE (PBS), has reported on Vermont’s capacity to manage recovery from natural disasters.
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The Coming Storm: Part 1 OF 3
Part 2
River erosion, the greatest naturally occurring threat to Vermonters, causes the vast majority of the state’s flood damage. As climate change intensifies, the problem is expected to worsen — yet solutions are complex and expensive. In the meantime, many Vermonters remain in harm’s way.
Available November 9, 2026
Part 3
After disaster, survivors navigate life-changing decisions that can have enormous financial consequences. Are state and federal systems robust enough to help them?
Available November 16, 2026
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About the series
Last November, VTDigger partnered with FRONTLINE to produce an in-depth investigation into the aftermath of severe flooding across Vermont in 2023, 2024 and 2025. As part of FRONTLINE’S Local Journalism Initiative, the reporting examined the response of local, state and federal governments to those floods.
The Coming Storm is a three-part series that exposes the gaps in recovery systems that are intended to support communities in the wake of such disasters.
For this project, VTDigger reporter Emma Cotton spent time with flood survivors, who found themselves fearing their savings would be wiped out by damage to their properties. She also interviewed recovery workers, state and local officials, lawmakers, emergency management experts, scientists, and social services providers, among others. Cotton pored through government documents, including emails from state officials regarding aid, and she analyzed FEMA disaster data with help from VTDigger’s Erin Petenko and Eric Sagara of Big Local News at Stanford University.
Meet the reporter: Emma Cotton
Emma Cotton came to VTDigger in 2020 as a corps member for Report for America, covering southwestern Vermont. She then became an environmental reporter, where she contributed to the organization’s flood coverage. She became a senior editor in 2025. Previously, she reported for the Addison Independent in Middlebury and was an assistant editor for Vermont Sports and VT Ski + Ride magazines. She studied science journalism at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.
What would help you prepare for the next flood?
When flooding threatens your community, finding reliable information shouldn’t be another challenge.
VTDigger is gathering input to help create a practical emergency resource guide for Vermonters, and we want to know what would be most useful to you.
What information would you want before, during or after a flood? Where would you turn for help? What’s been missing when you’ve needed answers?
When you share your ideas for the guide, you can also enter to win a flood-preparedness kit from Onion River Outdoors.
Open to Vermont residents 18+. No survey response required to enter. Official giveaway rules
Thank you
The series was produced with the assistance of Taylor Haynes, Libbie Sparadeo, Ben Braun, Riley Robinson and Noel Clark. It includes photography from Glenn Russell, who has documented flooding in Vermont for more than a decade.
We are grateful to the many partners, editors and VTDigger staff who had a hand in this project. We would also like to recognize former CEO Sky Barsch and former Editor-in-Chief Geeta Anand who initiated this project 12 months ago, along with FRONTLINE editors Erin Texeira and Mia Zuckerkandel who guided it from beginning to end.
Special thanks to Seven Days for partnering with us to bring this investigation to readers across Vermont through a special print edition of the first story in the series. We are also grateful to our community ambassadors and partners who helped distribute the publication in their communities. Thank you to Onion River Outdoors for donating a flood-preparedness kit for our resource guide giveaway.
Finally, this kind of reporting takes time, talent, persistence and resources. We are grateful to the more than 9,200 VTDigger members who provide the financial support that make this work possible. We couldn’t do it without you.
If you found this reporting valuable, please make a donation to support more work like it. VTDigger is a nonprofit newsroom powered by reader contributions.
