One fine Web hurricane resource

Check out VTResponse. It's a Web resource for hurricane recovery, practical, and updated frequently.

Some items on it: Helping Hands, Temporary Housing, news, and mapping.

Willem communication

Update and requests from representative Willem Jewett:

Friends and Neighbors:

I've been out visiting with folks in the most
damaged areas of the district (Hancock). On Monday evening things looked pretty
bleak but a great deal of progress was made today. On Monday travel in or out of
the entire upper White River Valley (Rochester, Hancock, and Granville) was not
possible. As of this evening even passenger vehicles can make it over the gap. I
wouldn't have thought it possible when I saw the damage on Monday but a few
excavators can do a lot of work when the skies are clear.

I have two
brief requests:

#1) If you have been affected by Hurricane Irene please
call 211 to report your situation. Every one of these individual reports helps
us to document the extent of the damage and form the basis for our requests for
federal disaster relief funding.

#2) Let me know if you need help.

Collitt and Jewett speak to the storm

Two Riptonites reflected on our roads after the storm. From the Addison Independent:

In one location, the Middlebury River took out a swath of guardrail, noted
Ripton Selectman Richard Collitt.

“It’s nothing as serious as 2008,” Collitt said, harkening back to a brutal stretch of rain that erased several portions of Route 125 and took out entire sections of some local roads in Ripton, East Middlebury, Salisbury, Leicester, Goshen and Hancock.

“The town roads fared a lot better,” Collitt said, though he cautioned that some
small bridges on private roads in Lincoln likely sustained some damage that
might not be covered through federal disaster aid grants.

Indeed, most of the repairs made to local infrastructure following the 2008 flood — including the new Lower Plains Bridge in East Middlebury — stood up to Irene. The exceptions proved to be a small trunk of the Ripton Road and a washout on either
side of the culvert near the town garage.

Rep. Willem Jewett, D-Ripton, noted the washout areas of Route 125 were in some of the same locations as in 2008.

“I have a strong feeling that a different way of repairing (Route
125) would be in order,” Jewett said.

Ripton hit hard by hurricane

Hurricane Irene hit us hard. Trees down, power out, river up, flooding on the rise.






We even made the BBC.


Some of us are cut off, like the folks past Old Town Bridge.

(Old Town Bridge, washed out twice)

125 is closed in several places, apparently.

Our emergency response squad volunteers have been working day and night.

125 closure

Route 125 is being closed, from Hancock to East Middlebury. Flood damage.

125.

Hurrican Irene about to smack into Vermont

Hurricane Irene is drawing closer, and might cause Ripton some grief. What are your thoughts?


Some Web resources (while you have internet and electricity):

• National Hurricane Center, from NOAA.


• Hurricane Irene on Wikipedia. Excellent page, frequently updated.


• Weather Underground: fine weather resource (and a title not everyone will appreciate).


• Hurricane preparedness, from the Resilient Community Wiki.


• NASA's Irene page.
  

I'm happy to blog up your photos, video, audio, and stories, as you can get 'em to me.

Riptonite arrested in Washington

Ripton local arrested in Washington, protesting a planned oil pipeline.

People arrested include Bill McKibben, the prominent climate activist and founder of 350.org; Jane Hamsher, who founded the popular liberal blog
Firedoglake; and Gus Speth, whose career includes co-founding the Natural
Resources Defense Council and chairing the White House Council on Environmental Quality in the Carter Administration.

Bill says he's doing well so far.

From the Fire Department picnic

The Fire Department's picnic was a big success.

Here's chief Erik lording over us:

Full size here.

Thunder on the mountain

Ripton was hammered by a sudden, fierce thunderstorm just now.

We received a flash flood warning, and weren't alone:

... A line of strong thunderstorms will move through Caledonia...
eastern Addison... north central Rutland... northwestern Windsor...
Orange... south central Orleans... southeastern Chittenden...
southeastern LaMoille... southwestern Essex and Washington counties...

At 531 PM EDT... a line of strong thunderstorms was located from
Stillwater State Park to West Cornwall... moving southeast at 25 mph.

"African American Women and Christian Mission in the Civil Rights Era" - coming up at the town church

Later this month is a new presentation at our community's church:

Friends of Ripton Community Church invite you to share in another Ripton Lecture Series. This lecture will be presented by Middlebury College Professor Mary Kay Cavazos. The topic is:“A Leavening Force: African American Women and Christian Mission in the Civil Rights Era”. Dr. Cavazos is also Ripton’s new
pastor and will begin conducting services in September. Please join us on
Sunday, August 21th at 4:00 pm for a great lecture, and help us welcome her to
our community.