by Jim Carroll, Esq. PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Sometimes a Great Notion... (H.Ledbetter & J. Lomax, with help from Ken Kesey)
On August 28, 2011, Tropical Storm
Irene brought Vermont the second largest natural disaster of its twentieth and twenty- first centuries.
Born eight days prior in the lush beauty
of the Lesser Antilles (think Antigua down to Grenada), Irene developed into a cate- gory 2 hurricane by the evening of August 22nd
just north of the Dominican Republic. She was a category 3 hurricane by the time she left the Turks and Caicos Islands on the 24th
, but then seemed to lose her full head of steam by the 27th
after crossing the Ba-
hamas and as she approached the North Carolina coastline. Upon making landfall at Atlantic City, New Jersey, as a minimal cat- egory 1 hurricane, she was further reduced to a tropical storm near West Point, N.Y. Even if the average Vermonter was paying close attention to the approaching weath- er, it seemed we were only in for the typi- cal wind and rain that follows the fragment- ed leavings of a tropical storm spinning off into the North Atlantic.
But the high winds in the upper atmo-
sphere put Irene on a track almost direct- ly along the Connecticut River. By 10:00pm on the 28th, Irene departed Vermont, but the extreme velocity of the jet stream, the cold temperatures aloft, and the huge amount of moisture encountering the spine of the Green Mountains left behind four to eight inches of rain throughout central and southern Vermont with rainfall rates of one to two inches per hour. Given the al- ready abnormally high moisture content in the soil from recent storms, Vermont’s river towns were set up for flooding of biblical proportions.
During the storm, rivers crested at record heights before gauges stopped record- ing altogether. Six bridges were washed away entirely. 250 roads were closed due to flooding with many miles of those roads simply disappearing into new river beds and channels. Up to 50,000 custom- ers were without electricity or phone ser- vice, fuel tanks and other debris slammed against bridges and abutments, and more than 700 homes were either totally or par- tially destroyed by the time the rains final- ly abated. Whole communities were left cut off from assistance and historic villag- es were destroyed. Worst of all, Irene took the lives of several Vermonters and injured many others. As dawn arrived, it became
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clear that Vermont had a bona fide natural disaster on its hands.
In February of 2011, I attended, as your president-elect, the National Con- ference of Bar Presidents (“NCPB”) in At- lanta, Georgia. As bar associations go, the VBA is among the smallest represented at these conferences, even among city, coun- ty, or other specialized associations. I was pleased to note, however, that the work of Bob Paolini and our amazing staff—Kevin Ryan, Mary Ashcroft, Lisa Maxfield, Tami Baldwin, Laura Welcome, Devlin Nicholls, and James Knapp—has given the VBA a reputation and standing well beyond its size. Every past president in my memo- ry has remarked on this observation upon their return from their respective NCPB Conferences.
One of the central topics addressed at the 2011 NCPB Conference was disaster responsiveness and, in particular, the need for bar associations to prepare a disaster plan. As your then president-elect, I con- fess that I did not envision the creation of a disaster plan as a top working priority for the VBA given our relatively benign geo- graphical location and the number of other legislative, administrative, and strategic is- sues facing the Association and its mem- bers. After all, we are here because this is the fabled land of milk and honey and the floods of 1927 seemed to be pictures from a distant past. In this assumption I was re- miss, as Irene proved some seven months later.
The VBA is blessed with a staff and mem- bership that quickly responded to the im- mediate needs of our colleagues and those left devastated by Irene. The staff quickly determined what members needed logis- tical and office support and then reached out to offer assistance in maintaining their practices, providing communication links, and assisting in information and document retrieval. Fortunately, Vermont lawyers tend to be self-sufficient, a trait that served them well in the aftermath of Irene. Meanwhile, in Rutland, Jay Kenlan, as the Rutland County Bar President, imme- diately began to compile and draft the Rutland County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyer Disaster Legal Assistance Manual (September 2011) with the assistance of the Alleghany (Pennsylvania) Bar Associa- tion whose manual the Rutland Bar used
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • WINTER 2012
as a starting point for this enormous task.1 The members of the Rutland County Bar (“RCB”) quickly and comprehensively pro- duced a manual that covered FEMA and other federal assistance, insurance claims, housing assistance, consumer fraud pro- tection, home repair contracts, mortgage foreclosures, permitting issues, title issues, hazardous waste removal, replacing lost documents, and a host of other issues com- monly experienced by people coping with a disaster. The RCB then conducted train- ing sessions and used the Manual to set up, advertise and staff clinics throughout the stricken communities of Rutland County. It was a group effort and a singular act of kindness and concern that came from the collective heart of the RCB. In the end, it is only such efforts that build the public trust needed to do our jobs. I am very grateful to the members of the RCB for your work. Meanwhile, Mary Ashcroft at the VBA
and Angele Court at the Vermont Volun- teer Lawyers Project immediately went to work soliciting a panel of volunteer law- yers willing to provide legal assistance for those damaged by Irene regardless of their income. Within short order, 112 law- yers volunteered to assist in Irene-related legal matters, including the pursuit of in- surance claims, FEMA assistance, landlord- tenant disputes, and mortgage-related is- sues, among many other concerns. To date, ninety-five cases have been referred to this panel of volunteer lawyers. These repre- sentations and efforts are ongoing as the more complex situations created by Irene are entering the later stages of resolution. Our work on behalf of those damaged by Irene is not yet over and more volunteers will continue to be needed until all recov- ery options have been exhausted. Finally, on the legislative front, our own
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