By Deb Burke
posted
Aug 22, 2012
Two days after the Tropical Storm Irene did her damage, and at
the height of the activity in the "war room" (aka the classroom of
the Killington Fire and Rescue department), I was walking from my
position in the war room to the lunchroom, (aka the firehouse
kitchen.) Just then the veteran TV reporter and correspondent Wyatt
Andrews came running up the steep stairs with his camera man in
tow. I was amazed and taken aback to see someone in our firehouse
who I watched on the national television news. Wyatt put his hand
out to shake mine and sincerely asked "how are you all doing here
during this terrible disaster in Killington?"
Wyatt had been flown into our Killington island by chartered
helicopter. I realized at that point that our situation here is
going worldwide! I told Wyatt that just about everyone in
Killington who could help in any way was doing just that, and we
are organized and taking care of whatever problem came up and those
needs were addressed dutifully and efficiently.
Our emergency phone lines at the firehouse were ringing
constantly with residents and visitors calling to volunteer their
help, or to ask questions about fulfilling their needs. Local
restaurants and stores were donating sandwiches, beverages and
desserts for the myriad of volunteers in the war room. People who
needed such necessities as prescriptions, or special foods for
their animals were carefully taken care of by volunteers. A free
community food shelf was established and manned by resident
volunteers.
During the height of the storm the pagers of the volunteers of the
fire department were toning out frequently, and we responded day
and night to help people who were in imminent danger from the
flooding water.
When our home loses power our generator starts up, so when
electricity to the town was out we provided some necessities of
life to people who were in dire straits. My husband is a helicopter
pilot, and when the weather was right he flew people in and out of
Killington to Burlington Airport to catch flights, to access
medical treatments, and he picked up people in Rutland who had to
get here and flew them to Killington. He flew me around to take
aerial photos of the damage which were published in The Mountain
Times, and subsequently put online and on Facebook to show the
world that we were indeed an island, no way in or out.
Living on a mountain in Vermont, you don't imagine that you'll
experience the wrath of hurricanes, tropical storms, and severe
floods. Snowstorms, Nor'easters and throngs of tourists driving
very slowly along our roadways to see the gorgeous fall foliage
were the things we would be concerned about, not floods tearing up
roads and pushing houses over the brink to collapse.
On August 28, 2011 the State of Vermont was hit with the worst
tropical rainstorm in 75 years. The Killington community rose to
meet this disaster head-on, and we know from this experience that
we can depend on the members of our community to meet just about
any challenge we face in the future.
Tagged:
hurricane irene, reflections, killington
