Two floods, a year apart – A family’s story of resilience

By Dan Dowling, regional communications manager

“We opened the hatch to the basement, and it was coming in like a fire hose.” 

We met Robin at a Red Cross emergency shelter in Lyndonville after she was forced from her home by floodwaters. On July 11, 2024, heavy rain from the remnants of Hurricane Beryl flooded many towns across Vermont. Some areas received as much as three to six inches of rain in less than 12 hours, resulting in deadly flash flooding.  

Exactly one year earlier, Robin and her family lost their home in another extreme weather event caused by torrential rain. It was the Great Vermont Flood of 2023 – a catastrophic storm that displaced hundreds of Vermonters, decimated infrastructure and forever changed the Green Mountains. Still, its people remained Vermont Strong. Robin was in Barre then. After the storm, she needed to find a new place to live. After spending time most of that summer in a hotel room, Robin and her daughter, Margaret, began looking for a more permanent place to call home, but she struggled to find an affordable rental for her family.

“We decided to buy a house. We found this house that we bought in Lyndonville. It was a beautiful house. They made us buy flood insurance, thank God,” Robin said. 

As they settled into their new place, they were happy, despite a bit of water in the basement after a November storm. But last week, when over four inches of rain fell on the Lyndonville area, Robin and her family found themselves running from disaster once again as water surged into their beloved home.  

“We called the fire department – and they came. They said we had five minutes to get in the boat. So, I grabbed my meds and a few other important things. We got in the boats and came to the firehouse, where they were wonderful to us,” she said. 

Robin and her family have been spending time at the Red Cross shelter as clean-up is beginning on their flooded house. She says she has been busy handling all of the post-storm calls from the shelter while the rest of her family tend to the mucking and repairs at home. 

“I had people lined up to go pumping out the house the minute the water went down. I lined up an electrician, and the power is back on and all inspected. We found our two kitties safe and sound,” she said. 

The Red Cross responds to a disaster every eight minutes, and our volunteers are always ready to help those in need. Since 2019, we’ve seen a six-fold increase in the annual number of disasters causing $1 billion or more in damage, compared to 40 years ago. This relentless pace of severe disasters has created more ongoing emergency needs — including for families who have been displaced year after year by extreme weather. 

Robin says she’s grateful for the community support and the help from the Red Cross when she and her family needed it most. She even noted how Red Cross volunteers went above and beyond to ensure her daughter and son-in-law didn’t miss the celebration of a special milestone while at the shelter. 

“The people have been wonderful,” she said. “Today is Margaret and Brad's anniversary and they went and made a special effort to get a cake and a card – and that was nice. The volunteers have gone to great lengths to help people, including me.” 

Robin and her family look forward to returning home soon. They hope that they’ll have more than a year before the next big storm.  

All Red Cross assistance is provided free of charge and made possible by the generosity of the public. You can help people affected by disasters like flooding and countless other crises by making a donation to support Red Cross Disaster Relief. Your gift enables the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small. Visit redcross.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.