BURKE, Vermont — BURKE, Vermont (AP) — Two floods July’s storms have crippled businesses and destinations in an economically depressed part of northern Vermont. Some remain closed as they repair damage, while other weather-deterred visitors are urging them to make the trip anyway.
Kingdom Trails, a popular destination for mountain bikers, draws tens of thousands of visitors each year. But storms that hit the region on July 10 and 30 washed out several roads and bridges, damaged homes and trails, and discouraged visitors at the height of the season.
Businesses and destinations are scrambling to get back to business. Some are still closed in nearby Lyndonville, while others want to let people know they are open.
“I can’t stress enough that we are open and our community is welcoming,” said Abby Long, executive director of Kingdom Trails. “We encourage people to not only come to Kingdom Trails and have a great time, but to volunteer to clean out houses and take out their belongings in the morning and relax on the trails in the afternoon.”
The storms caused $300,000 in damage to the trails — and that’s not counting the loss of member revenue, she said. The trails were closed for about a day and a half as crews worked furiously to reopen them. The cost of the repairs is on top of the $150,000 in damage sustained in the floods of last summer.
“That’s not sustainable,” Long said.
So far this year, 341 Vermont businesses have reported water damage to the state, according to Economic Development Commissioner Joan Goldstein. About 1,100 businesses were affected last summer, she said.
In Lyndonville, a popular restaurant that has been in business since 1978 will not reopen after damaged by the storms of July 10The owner of the Miss Lyndonville Diner is having repairs done and plans to sell the restaurant. She said the Caledonian record that the flood convinced her it was time to retire.
Nearby Village Sport Shop, which has also been in business for nearly 50 years, has decided to close its flooded store in Lyndonville and withdraw from the ski business, according to a social media post from the company.
“With the amount of flooding we have endured and the evolution we have had to go through as a company, we have decided it is time to shift our focus to the summer side of the business and remove ourselves from the flood risk that the lowest-lying properties on the strip face,” the release said. The company has a bike shop along the route in East Burke.
A bagel shop and a Walgreens drugstore were temporarily closed while the water damage was repaired.
In May, Vermont became the first state to introduce a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay for some of the damage caused by extreme weather events due to climate changeBut officials have acknowledged that collecting money will depend on lawsuits against an oil industry with far greater resources.
In Burke, a town of about 1,650 people and home to the Burke Mountain ski area, Kingdom Trails is a huge economic driver, said City Manager Jim Sullivan.
“It’s traumatic, it’s unbelievable how far it goes,” he said. “If Kingdom Trails can’t open, people are canceling their reservations at Airbnbs, at inns. We have restaurants that are counting on all of those people coming here. And it’s just a chain reaction that eventually tapers off because you have these absolutely beautiful days and you just don’t have the people here that we normally would have if we didn’t have this devastation.”
The East Burke Market had a very good summer, but when the aisles closed, business “kind of ground to a halt,” said co-owner Burton Hinton.
Every storm hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to roads and property, Sullivan said. The city lost a bridge in the July 10 flood and the entire mountain road in the storm weeks later, he said.
“We’re still waiting for some direction from the federal government. In the meantime, everyone has really come together and done a great job of helping each other. Real community,” he said.
About 60 student-athletes who compete in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Cycling League’s mountain bike cross-country competition and 40 coaches were in Burke training at Kingdom Trails when the latest flooding occurred on July 30.
The group had to switch to dirt trails for a few days, but some trails quickly reopened afterward, said Michael Morrell of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, who was with them.
“The trail system here and the trail crew are just so efficient, and the trails, a lot of the trails, have a really good drainage system,” he said Aug. 1.
Still, he said he felt bad for those who rely on tourists visiting the local trails.
“I feel so bad that their roads are closed,” Morrell said. “… We’re just glad that we can support them in any way we can.”