WESTMINSTER — Now that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has rejected the town's initial request for federal disaster aid for road repairs after a freak May 20 storm, town and state officials are trying to figure out what to do next.
A localized thunderstorm dumped more than 4 inches of rain on Westminster West in less than a hour, resulting in flash flooding that destroyed one road and made two others unsafe but passable.
Bemis Hill and Hartley Hill roads in Westminster and Rockingham suffered the worst damage. Bemis Hill Road was completely washed out and impassable for days.
Hartley Hill was passable, but wide swaths of the roadside were cut away, leaving trenches up to 4 feet deep.
Just over the line in Rockingham, Hartley Hill Road residents saw floodwaters run off the hill across the road and down their driveways into their yards, depositing debris that took several weeks to remove.
Westminster road crews worked for almost a month to restore Bemis Hill and Hartley Hill.
The town hoped the cost of the work would be part of the federal government's July 8 disaster declaration in Caledonia and Washington counties, both of which saw severe storms and flooding over May 26 and 27 that caused millions of dollars in damage in cities and towns towns along the Winooski River.
However, according to Vermont Emergency Management (VEM) deputy director Ross Nagy, and Alec Portalupi of the Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT), who is serving as public assistance officer for severe storm and flooding damage, Westminster's floods happened outside of the time period designated in the requests from Gov. Peter Shumlin.
While not a total denial, the present refusal of aid means that it might be quite a bit longer before the region will be reimbursed for the money it spent to repair the flood damage in Windham County.
“Technically, we haven't been denied anything. We've just been given limited guidance,” Nagy said.
Portalupi said local authorities will be asked to come to applicant briefings, which will most likely be held in Dummerston.
VEM has town highway emergency grant funds available, but Portalupi said that “the pot is growing thin” because of the higher-than-normal demand this year.
While Portalupi stressed that “we have never turned applicants away,” and said the agency would “scrape together the funds from somewhere,” state agencies must wait --- for now.
“We've never had to do this before,” Nagy said of the process.
State officials must now find fresh and satisfactory ways of documenting the disasters so that the threshold includes “all the counties within the time frame of the incident,” Nagy said, adding that this is not an appeals process, but an administrative process that they have never had to negotiate before.
In the meantime, Westminster and Rockingham must do their respective parts in documenting the May 20 and 21 incidents, attend applicant briefings, and await reimbursement.
Both Nagy and Portalupi assured residents that disaster funding will be available at some point from one of the two agencies.