These times, they are a changin'

As the change to fall can no longer be in doubt, especially with flurries falling already, we have been having some of our own big changes going on as well.  

The biggest change that we have seen is the addition of two new floodplain managers to supplement the work that Rebecca Pfeiffer has been doing on a statewide basis.  We are happy to introduce Sacha Pealer, covering central Vermont and Joshua Carvajal, covering southern Vermont, as our new Floodplain Managers, while Rebecca will be taking northern Vermont.  To see the regions and communities that each floodplain manager will be covering, you can see our Floodplain Regions map on our Flood Hazard Management website (see below on the website domain change).


A second change that some people may have heard about in local Vermont news is the big move for some of the staff of the Agency of Natural Resources in early October.  After Irene flooded the Waterbury State Office Complex, which included most of the centralized ANR offices, the majority of ANR staff has been scattered about in various office spaces around Washington & Chittenden Counties.  The ultimate goal, though, was to move the ANR centralized offices to the National Life building located in Montpelier which other VT State Agencies call home, including VTrans, the Secretary of State's office & the Agency of Commerce & Community Development.  The Rivers Program staff that had been located in Waterbury was part of the first ANR staff to move into our new office space at National Life.  So while you may not have seen too many changes on the outside, there have been some moves and adjustments as we all settle into our new spaces and roles.

Another change for everyone to be aware of is that our website address will also be changing.  About 1 year ago, the VT Water Quality Division was reorganized and renamed the VT Watershed Management Division (WSMD) which provides for the comprehensive management of Wetlands, Rivers, and Lakes. The WSMD also supports the integrity of surface waters by administering programs to regulate wastewater discharges and stormwater runoff.  Our old website domain was listed as vtwaterquality.org, while the new WSMD domain is http://watershedmanagement.vt.gov.  The specific link to the Rivers Program Flood Hazard Management website is now:

http://watershedmanagement.vt.gov/rivers/htm/rv_floodhazard.htm

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sandy's On Her Way

It looks like we may be spared the same type of flooding that we had seen during Tropical Storm Irene, but the magnitude of damage experienced here in Vermont during Irene wasn't quite expected, either.  At least one thing that that is different from Irene is the level of awareness of the storm and the preparations that people are making that didn't seem to be as prevalent as we were waiting for Irene to make landfall.  Also, in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene, many  people took advantage of FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funds to have their floodprone property acquired by the community.  This should hopefully reduce any flood damages to homes and property that may result from Hurricane Sandy.

Additional information about preparing for a storm and other important Vermont-specific links can be found on Vermont Emergency Management's website - http://vem.vermont.gov/  

You can keep an eye on the streamflow conditions throughout Vermont at the US Geologic Survey's site and you can track Sandy's movement at the National Weather Service site, or Vermont Public Radio's site, too.

There are already reports of the impacts from storm surge affecting parts of NYC (to learn more about storm surge, visit NOAA's site  that includes an animated demonstration of how storm surge works.)

If there is any additional information regarding flooding in Vermont, we will be sure to post here.  Also, see our "Links to Important Documents" page for more resources.