July 10-11, the remnants of Hurricane Beryl tore up the Town of Barnet, VT. The only red-flagged house in this community was Heather’s. Several tons of debris and water from a washed out 1000’ swath of a major intersection, including a town road and destroyed water system line, roared mercilessly into Heather’s property, cutting a deep gully between her home and her garage. It washed her car down into the cutaway from its parking space, leaving it and the destroyed water line pipes below the exposed garage foundation. The broken roadway, rock, mud, and other debris took away her entire yard, broke the left and back sides of the foundation of her home away, and filled the back yard, nearly covering her 6’ chain link dog run. She was rescued by our small town’s brave volunteer fire and rescue department in the dark of night.

Aside from the $75,000 estimate for repairing the house foundation, she will be faced with even more challenges: The deck on the back of her home is now suspended in mid air, with nothing to hold its supports. The exterior staircase is gone. The basement of her home was filled with several feet of mud, taking out her furnace. (Four large teams of quickly-assembled volunteers labored in shifts for two solid days mucking out the cellar by bucket brigade.). She lived in a hotel room for over a week, which she had to pay for. Meals were required during this time. Her car is a total loss, and the insurance company will take weeks before they make a decision - they need to “assess the damage”. She now has a rental, yet another expense out of her own pocket, of course. There will be need for an abundance of exterior work filling in between her home and garage, and no funds will be available for that required work. There is a separation at the roofline between the main house and the addition -daylight can be seen.

The insurance company for her home has called this an “act of god” and has flatly denied her claim. FEMA declaration will take a couple of months.

Heather is a quiet, selfless helper. She has a huge heart for people in need (sometimes to her own detriment). Her entire decades-long public-service career has been in service to others. She headed up our region’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Heather has been deeply involved in various community and regional volunteer organizations for years. In fact, the very morning after her home was so severely impacted, she was assisting these and other organizations with disaster responses in our region, ignoring her own needs.

Now is the time for my dear friend and neighbor Heather to be on the receiving end for the first time in her life. It has taken me a couple of weeks to get her to agree to a go fund me plan as part of her recovery. Any donation, large or small, will help in the effort to stabilize her home and see her way forward so she can continue her valuable work without extreme pressures of this financial burden.