Following devastating flooding in July 2023, Montpelier, Vermont officials created a Commission for Recovery and Resilience. It has issued a draft emergency response plan and recently held a public meeting to get feedback.
In July 2023, the Winooski River inundated parts of Vermont’s capital city. Recovery continues to this day.
Subsequently a public-private commission was created to form new disaster recovery strategies. Preservation Trust of Vermont President Ben Doyle is chair of the Commission.
“After he July 2023 flood, there was a series of public conversations about how are we going to try to recover from this event and how are we going to try to prepare for the next one, which we know is going to happen,” recalled Doyle. “And as a result of that Montpelier Alive, the Montpelier Foundation and the city of Montpelier convened a 15-member commission of people with a variety of expertise. We have no official authority. We're just folks that really care about Montpelier and are trying to work for good things to happen. So we're working in three kind of bucket areas. Watershed, knowing that flooding doesn't just happen spontaneously in Montpelier. It's a whole watershed relationship. The other one is adaptive downtown. Thinking about how do we harden the infrastructure in our downtown. And then the next one is emergency response and preparedness.”
In October the new draft emergency response plan called the Montpelier Action Plan for Local Emergency – or MAPLE – was issued. During the forum key points of the plan were outlined.
Commission co-chair Richarda Ericson, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Whole Communities and past Deputy Director of the Vermont River Conservancy, said as they worked on the plan it became clear that clarity of roles and communication needed work.
“Clarity of roles and responsibilities is a key function of this plan. That way we can clearly understand where we as community members need to step up and where we can rely on our city officials,” said Ericson. “With our consultants we crafted a gap analysis identifying holes in disaster response and communications.”
Ericson also moderated a breakout session on improving communications during disasters.
“How are we communicating when the power is out? That was a big question that we discussed and folks would like to see a little more robust information in the plan. Communication plans with schools. And using good old-fashioned radio as a communication tool,” recounted Ericson.
Commission Executive Director Jon Copans said the meeting is a pivotal moment to move forward and set milestones for additional work on the 65-page plan.
“It’s really about how do we move forward from here. You know, one thing we're going to do with this plan is fill in some detail,” noted Copans. “I'll give you an example. We know that the volunteer hub is essential. We have more conversations to do and to figure out things like, you know what's important when you're tracking volunteers is a software system for making sure you're connecting those volunteers to the right opportunities. Another example is really working with our partner organizations to better define how they fit into MAPLE and what they will be doing on their own.”
Commissioner Marc Gwinn noted that while they have been working for months on the plan, they are at the beginning of the process as they identify and update community needs and partnerships.
“I’d like to say we're going to wind up at some magic day where everyone in the community has this confidence that they have a plan for what they going to do, how they can help others, how others can help them. And I do think we will reach something that is close to that,” Gwinn said. “However, it is going to be an endless cycle of constant preparedness, continued training and continuous learning, refining and improvement of this plan and interacting with each other as community members, not in emergency, will keep our muscles in shape and ready to react when there is an emergency.”
Breakout sessions discussed ideas for improving communications, community-based response and operational planning.
