On Friday, eight cars drove up to a Red Cross tent and trailer on Route 2 in Plainfield to pick up cleaning supplies, garbage bags, shovels, and flashlights.
Tonja Cochran drove there with a friend. She’s trying to find a place to move — the floods washed away most of her property and she’s worried her home won’t withstand the next rainfall.
“Even now if I don’t find a place, I still got to get out of the home,” she said. “So I’ve got to pack and prepare everything to move. So totes is a big thing, garbage bags, flashlights and batteries.”
The Red Cross is setting up temporary sites to distribute supplies, like the one in Plainfield, for the next several days in St. Johnsbury, Barre, Lyndonville, Middlesex, Richmond, and back in Plainfield on Monday.
“It’s been sometimes slow, because this is day eight,” said Beth Ann Finlay, of Chelsea, who was there on her first day of volunteering with the Red Cross.
Other volunteers came from further away. Mary Ellen Tarling, of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, has been staying in Vermont for several days delivering food to shelters.
“My heart goes out to the people here,” she said. “I’m happy I’m able to be here to help out.”
More from Vermont Public: How to help Vermont communities reeling from July 2024 floods
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