Five years ago, this week, a freak-show hurricane cum tropical storm called Irene, dropped unprecedented amounts of rain on the state of Vermont. Brattleboro’s many waterways swelled beyond their banks, including the Whetstone Brook, which crept, uninvited, on to Flat Street, creating a brown, muddy lake, damaging buildings and closing business.
BHS Trustee Joe Rivers spoke with Boys & Girls Clubs interim director, Ricky Davidson, about the day Irene visited ruination upon Brattleboro, the damage no one saw coming, and the equally tremendous swell of community spirit and generosity that aided a remarkable recovery.
Photo by and courtesy of Peter LaMorder.
The Olden Days of History
I went back through our archives to see how it evolved in stories here.
The first report iBrattleboro had on Irene was on Thursday, Aug 25, warning of Irene’s approach and impending flooding. Comments were along the lines of “The threats at this point to Brattleboro would be severe flooding and trees coming down, plus power outages.” Others teased people for spreading fear!
The third story was an announcement from the Town warning of flooding, which came out later that day.
On the 28th, damage reports started coming. The Rutland Herald was cutoff from delivering and started publishing news here until they could get reconnected.
Some additional forgotten history: Just days before Irene, Brattleboro was all abuzz about an earthquake that many people felt.