So, update for anyone who cares....
First, thanks to Illinois- our Guard Blackhawks are still in shipping back from their latest deployment, the crews literally landed in Jersey yesterday, so we're borrowing some H-60s and a few, big, beautiful Chinooks, plus flight and ground crews. We've got power crews from Maine and Illinois coming in as well, and the private helos in Vermont are all assisting.
Local heavy equipment owners and operators showing up with their machinery and asking where they need to be, but that is to be expected in a town where the only way we get things done in most towns is volunteers.
Almost all towns are now accessible. By horseback, foot, ATV, dirt and mountain bike, or Guard Hummers in some cases, but there are water, food, fuel and medical supplies getting in. But there are still places where we can't get large trucks to bring in efficient load sizes and most passenger vehicles can't get out. For the few places where even by hoof and by boot you can't do it, helicopter resupply is running.
The number of the missing is going up, but not by a few.
There is question about the safety of personal garden crops that were flooded, citing sewage and petro chem contamination. We are starting to get more word on farm damage, doesn't sound so good for crops- we'll be buying a lot of feed this winter. Lot of small businesses may be done as well.
And we are testing something new with Google, a faster to update and more useful map for the Department of Transportation. Still adding the local roads and small bridges, but considering it didn't exist 100 hours ago it's a pretty good start.
http://511.vermont.gov/main.jsf The big thing I'm not seeing is drop points for supplies. Me and Matt got off light, the Burlington area mostly got inconvenienced unless you looking at a farm. There is a part of me who wants to share the pain with my neighbors.