Gov. Phil Scott on Wednesday reiterated his uncertainty about whether damage from this week’s flooding will be extensive enough to trigger federal assistance.
Two days after Vermont got slammed by heavy rain and melting snow, administration officials pleaded with local officials and residents to document damage to infrastructure and their homes, and report it to Vermont 211 and their insurance companies.
While FEMA is still in the early stages of allocating tens of millions of dollars to help with recovery from July’s historic flooding, there are no guarantees that any financial aid will come to victims of this week’s storm, the governor said.
“There is no active program in place at this stage for direct financial support, but we need the data to see what might be possible…down the road,” Scott said during an afternoon press conference.
As of early Wednesday morning, officials said, the Vermont 211 system had received only 20 damage reports.
Meanwhile, all of Vermont’s rivers are comfortably below flood stage, all emergency shelters have shut down, and only two state roads – Route 302 in Barre and Route 73 in Sudbury – remain closed.
(Ironically, the last remaining state road closed from July’s storm, a portion of Route 107 in Stockbridge, reopened only last Friday, Secretary of Transportation Joe Flynn said.)
There have been no reports of fatalities or injuries related to this week’s flooding.
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