BARRE, Vt. (WCAX) – Some of the hardest hit Vermonters last July were those living in mobile homes, and many are still waiting for buyouts from the government.
“I had plans, I had good plans,” said Mark Christie, who bought his new mobile home and never thought it’d be mobile again once he perched it high on a hill at the end of Oswald Street in Barre.
Christie, who has owned the property for upward of 20 years, had been saving for the new home for his retirement. But last July, after flooding left the city underwater, Christie and his home got caught in a landslide. “I was very, very scared,” he said, describing the mountain of mud, trees, and rocks that pushed his home 100 feet and swung it a full 90 degrees. “It was pretty much instant. Oh yeah, it was one heck of a racket.”
Christie says he had just sat down to gear up for more cleanup on his street when the hillside gave way. “Was getting my boots on and all the sudden it happened and I ended up right by that door there and rode it out,” he said. Christie wasn’t hurt but his home was destroyed. “it’s heartbreaking. very heartbreaking. ))
And a year later, the mobile home still sits where it landed and remains a mess. Luckily for Christie, his sister gave him a place to stay. “Otherwise I’d be… I don’t know where I’d be, Darren, to be honest with you,” he said.
But getting back into his own digs depends on dollars from a buyout, and so he’s still paying a mortgage and insurance on the place. “I just want this to be done so I can move on. I need to move on,” Christie said. He says the buyout approval process has been too slow for him and other homeowners, and just like parts of his trailer — it’s still up in the air. “You’ve got human lives that are devastated, that are traumatized.”
Christie ays he’s been told by federal officials that the final approval could still be months away. Until then, he’s grateful to his family for giving him a roof over his head, but he’s ready for his own to help get past the memories.
2023 FLOOD DAMAGE BY THE NUMBERS
The WCAX weather team says Calais took on the most amount of rain during the July 2023 storm — 9.2 inches. That compares to an average of about 4 inches for that month.
Vermont’s chief recovery officer says 164 state highways were damaged and almost 300 miles of roadway closed. Tenty-three bridges were damaged enough that they needed to be replaced.
About $ 200 million in damage was reported by towns across the state.
More than 200 households applied for FEMA buyouts, though none have been completed to date.
Over 6,000 people registered to receive FEMA assistance, and 37 percent of that assistance was focused in Washington County.
FEMA continues to process and update applications.