Vermont Not Prepared to Manage Disaster Recovery, Investigation Says

Shayd Pecor wants to leave his home for good. On July 10, 2023, up to nine inches of rain pummeled Vermont, forcing Pecor and his wife, Laurie, to evacuate as water overtook their front porch. That night, floodwaters inundated more than 130 towns across the state, killing two people, destroying roads and bridges, and leaving an estimated $600 million in damage. As flooding increases and federal aid shrinks, Vermont is not prepared to manage disaster recovery, vtdigger.org reported in a yearlong investigation titled The Coming Storm, published in partnership with FRONTLINE (PBS).

The Pecors thought they had a way out by applying for a buyout from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Pecor and his neighbors are caught between rising waters and local fiscal survival.

Small Town Budgets Collapsed Under Mounting Flood Debt

Average rainfall in Vermont has increased 21% since 1900, repeatedly swelling the state’s more than 7,000 miles of rivers and accelerating erosion. Without a state disaster reserve or traditional county governments to assist with recovery, small towns are absorbing crippling financial shocks. Most Vermont municipalities have fewer than 5,000 residents and annual budgets under $5 million.

Trump: "We're looking at the whole concept of FEMA. I like, frankly, the concept when North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it. Meaning the state takes care of it … I'd like to see the states take care of… pic.twitter.com/LGeK6Bw5b1″

— https://x.com/atrupar/status/1882823858547232879

In the town of Burke, Jim Sullivan, the town administrator, faced a three-year flood damage total reaching almost $1.6 million against an annual budget of $3.3 million. Neighboring Sutton, home to fewer than 1,000 people, sustained $1.4 million in road damage in 2025 alone—more than twice its nearly $600,000 highway budget that year. Town clerk Patricia McClure and road foreman Shane Heath have relied on annual bank lines of credit, waiting anxiously for FEMA reimbursements to arrive just as loans come due.

Six miles south in Lyndon, municipal administrator Justin Smith confronted bills reaching $750,000 in a single week against an annual highway budget in the $2 million range. Lyndon borrowed $8 million first, then another $6.8 million from one bank, and eventually turned to the Vermont Bond Bank. By September 2026, Smith estimates the town will have spent about $20 million on repairs.

“We’re talking in numbers that we don’t deal with,” Justin Smith said.

Federal Assistance Shifts as Administration Targets FEMA

Vermont has historically relied on federal disaster help more than almost any other state. In 2025, however, President Donald J. Trump denied Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s request for a Major Disaster Declaration for July flooding, stating that aid was “not warranted.” According to an Associated Press analysis, the Trump administration has denied more disaster requests from states that voted against him in 2024 than from states that voted for him.

While FEMA stated it has sent almost $20 million in funding through the agency’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and more than $160 million in public assistance to Vermont since January 2025—funds unlocked when President Joseph R. Biden issued disaster declarations—the administration has signaled a shift in approach. Soon after taking office in January 2025, President Trump issued an executive order forming a council to conduct “a full-scale review” of FEMA. Congress has not yet altered the Stafford Act, which governs disaster aid distribution, but state officials note the clear trajectory.

“The states have to do more with less,” said Eric Forand, director of Vermont Emergency Management.

Whether the Vermont Legislature will establish a state disaster reserve or how small towns with poverty rates among the highest in the state, such as those in the Northeast Kingdom, will manage future borrowing remains unanswered as storm season approaches.