While we organized with the help of Facebook and the internet and cleaned with water and electricity and fuel, we received reports of the devastation throughout Vermont and it broke our hearts. So much to do here and so much need everywhere.
Then we realized, amidst the furor of our cleaning and sifting and consoling, that it was very quiet to the south and the east. The silence was profound.
Our neighbors in Granville, Hancock and Rochester were completely cut off for almost three days. No power, no phones, finite food, gas and medicine. Those are our people and they needed food and water and medicine –and we could not get to them for over 48 hours.
And those people in Roxbury and Northfield with their broken roads and that horribly punctured covered bridge? They are our people, too.
The families of the people who died in this storm? They are our people, too.
The farmers who grow our food? They are our people!
All the thousands whose homes and businesses are destroyed –they are our people, too.
The 400 people stranded in Pittsfield –they are our people and they are getting through this.
Killington where a mudslide destroyed the ski lodge –and much, much more? They are our people, too.
Quechee – the broken covered bridge hurts. Those are our people, too.
Bartonsville, the loss of the covered bridge broke a million hearts plain and simple. Those are our people, too.
Moretown, Waterbury, Waitsfield, Warren, Duxbury, Roxbury, Northfield, Granville, Hancock, Rochester, Pittsfield, Mendon, Wilmington, Ludlow, Rutland, Stockbridge, Plymouth, Bennington, Brattleboro, East Dover, Wardboro, Jamaica, Marlboro and beyond -- from the north to the south, east to west, river to mountain, lake to hollow, and valley to gore -- those are all our people.
We care, we hear you. We will help.
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