Far, Far From Home

 

I’m in the middle of my fifth winter season here in Wanaka and at Treble Cone. Over the course of those seasons, that time spent here in New Zealand, I’ve become very attached to the place and its people and have been made to feel very at home here. But, at the end of the day, Wanaka and New Zealand are not home for me; the State of Vermont is.

I’m often the first person from Vermont that people here in Wanaka have met, so I thought some statistics about our beautiful little corner of the world might provide context. The Green Mountain State, as it is known, is among the smallest of the fifty states. According to the 2010 census, we have a population of 608,827 (larger than only Wyoming), and more than a third of those people reside in our largest city, Burlington. Our state capital is Montpelier, which with a population of 7,705 people is the least-populated state capital in the country. Vermont has a land area of 9,629 square miles, and our land is overwhelmingly mountainous with so many lakes and rivers in our narrow valleys that 3.8% of our land is covered by of water despite being landlocked. Because of its lack of development, the entire state of Vermont has been designated one of America's most “endangered historic places” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Vermont can justly be considered the cradle of American snow sports. The first ski tow in America was located on Gilbert’s Hill outside of Woodstock, site of the Suicide Six ski area where I spent so many winter days as a young child. Vermont is also the home state of Jake Burton Carpenter and the Burton Snowboard Company, and he created snowboarding on the hills outside his home in Londonderry. Vermont is the home of numerous current and former members of the U.S. Ski Team and their coaches, and our several ski academies and universities provide the proving ground for many more snow sports athletes.

On August 27th and 28th, 2011, in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, every one of our many rivers and our many lakes flooded. Badly. Very badly. The torrent of water rushing down our mountainsides and into our valleys packed a destructive force never before seen in the Northeastern United States. In a rural and very poor place, the flooding this past week has been so severe that on the morning of the August 30th, several days after the storm ended, the Air National Guard was still airlifting food into 13 towns totally cut off from the outside world. Hundreds of bridges and roads have collapsed or washed out entirely and countless people remain stranded, unaccounted for and in danger. The water is now receding and the full extent of the damage is coming to light - it is very, very severe.

As I write, it is the evening of September 1st at home and crews from the State of Vermont, my home town of Ludlow and Central Vermont Public Service (the state power utility) are already hard at work. The Red Cross, National Guard and every local service organization have been working around the clock – a friend on the Ludlow Ambulance job just completed a 36-hour shift! Every article available on the web, every comment made by members of our community makes note of our ‘hearty Yankee stock’ and the resourcefulness and indomitable spirit of our people. These comments may represent a combination of truth and hope, but there definitely is much truth in them.

Our season here at Treble Cone concludes in early October, a few weeks from now. I’ll stick around here in Wanaka, enjoying the down time and the sunshine for a bit before heading home, and I’ll enjoy every minute of it. Still, in the back of my mind, in my heart and in my stomach, I’m feeling the distance between myself and the state, the community I call home. Every last mile of it. And it feels far, far away.

Even with all of the reasons to keep our chins up and our spirits intact, there are organizations we can help provide assistance to Vermont’s people. Black River Good Neighbor Services (www.brgn.org) is a local charity in Ludlow that provides food and household goods to local families in need. The American Red Cross of Vermont & The New Hampshire Valley (http://www.redcrossvtnhuv.org) is very active in the area. One cool item is a t-shirt created by Independent Vermont Clothing to benefit flood relief, with all proceeds going to the Red Cross efforts in Vermont  (http://independentvermontclothing.bigcartel.com/). I’m certain that there are many more organizations and opportunities that I’m missing here.

The photos here are of the mountains outside Killington, Vermont, which has been devastated, and the covered bridge at Quechee, Vermont which has been almost completely destroyed.