Fans can purchase tickets tickets at 50% off by calling the ticket department at 656-8454 and mentioning the Volunteer Appreciation Day or online at UVM Athletics website and entering the promo code GOCATSGO.

Go Cats Go!

Thursday, February 23

12-1:30pm, Marsh Lounge, Billings

Refreshments will be provided.

The catastrophic earthquakes and aftershocks that began September 4, 2010 in Christchurch, New Zealand will set the stage for this public lecture. Leadership, community engagement, student volunteerism, and the human spirit will serve as the cast of characters.

Servant leadership theory is based on the primary tenet that in order to lead, one must serve first, and then from that experience conscious choice will bring one to aspire to lead (Greenleaf, 1970). This leadership theory was evident in the days following the Christchurch earthquakes, and was identified in the actions and perspectives of the student who created the University of Canterbury Student Volunteer Army (SVA). As a response to the goodwill and momentum generated by the SVA, a course, CHCH101: Rebuilding Christchurch – An Introduction to Community Engagement in Tertiary Studies, was created and delivered to assist students with reflection on their service and connecting it to academic content.

“As a social/educational researcher, with a specific interest in pedagogy, transformative student experiences, leadership and service, after that fateful day in September, I found myself in the dust and rubble of a monumental moment in New Zealand history – the epicenter of human spirit, community engagement, and leadership.” – Dr. Lane Perry

Questions? Please contact the CUPS Office at 802-656-0095

Following is a small sampling of other stories from the publication that highlights UVM people and programs in the national and local spotlight:

University Programs Raise Crop of New Farmers

The Chronicle of Higher Education, in a trend story about the rise in sustainable agriculture programs, features the university's new intensive -- and comprehensive -- farmer-training program, which teaches recent graduates and career changers both the production and business skills that are necessary to become a successful small farmer. Read the story at Chronicle.com...

Local Wheat Sees Revival in Former Grain States

An Associated Press story that ran in The New York Times and numerous other publications notes the university's major role in helping farmers grow wheat in New England. Among other UVM aid, agronomist Heather Darby says she's working on strategies such as choosing the most suitable grains and improving harvesting practices. Read the article at HuffingtonPost.com...

Soda Boosts Violence Among Teens, Study Finds

The Washington Post, in its health column, "The Checkup," examined the results of a study by economist Sara Solnick finding that teenagers who drink soda are more likely to carry a weapon and act violently. The paper, titled "The Twinkie Defense," was published in the journal Injury Prevention. Read the story at WashingtonPost.com...

Spin Cycles: a New Book Chronicles the Old History of Biking in Burlington

Seven Days profiles professor and director of the international studies program Luis Vivanco, his new book -- an anthropological study of the history of cycling in Vermont -- and Vivanco's own cultural and political life on a bike. Read the story at SevenDaysVT.com...

See past issues of UVM in the News. To subscribe, send a request to newserv@uvm.edu.

Look closer and the evidence of devastation is clear: a park bench peaks at passersby from a hole in the ground; a large branch is balanced near the peak of a gazebo’s roof. 

At the height of the flooding, a tributary of the White River that borders the park rose so high over its banks, it was able to strand the branch on its unlikely perch. When the floodwaters receded, the fine silt they carried settled in the park, leaving a deposit of clay-like mud three- and four-feet deep. 

Last Saturday morning about thirty UVM volunteers showed up to help restore Peavine Park to the town jewel it was once was, part of a contingent of about 80 UVMers – and more than 1,000 Vermonters from around the state – summoned by Governor Peter Shumlin to assist people and communities affected by Irene on a day the governor designated as Clean Up Day.

UVM volunteers also worked at the Riverside Mobile Home Park in West Woodstock and at two homes and alongside a littered riverbank in Rochester. 

Shovel-ready

Most of the volunteers at Peavine Park were students, but faculty and staff also participated. They spent the day shoveling out the base and surface roots of trees choked with mud, excavating posts that ringed a parking lot and raking leaves. 

Once the fine work of freeing the trees from mud and outlining the parking lot is completed – the  bench and gazebo were dug out earlier – heavy equipment will be brought in to do the brute labor of digging up and carting off the stretches of muck that cover the park grounds.   

“Everyone’s needs have been so primary, Peavine Park has not been a priority,” said Lisa Campbell, a pre-school special education teacher who lives in neighboring Randolph who was the event coordinator for the town of Bethel. “But it’s such a sentimental favorite. This is where people have their graduation parties; they walk their dogs and launch their boats here. We need to take care of it. The response has been overwhelming; I’m humbled and grateful.”

For Corey Wilga, a first-year student from Northampton, Mass., the trip was a chance to come up for air after weeks of studying and to make a contribution to an important cause. “I wanted to do something different and really help the community," she said. "It’s hard
to believe this was a park. I’m really glad to have this task.”

Much of the organizing and logistics for UVM’s Clean Up Day activities were done by senior anthropology major Danielle Jenkins, a Hingham, Mass. native, in her role as outreach coordinator for Irene relief, a professional position created by the UVM administration several weeks ago. Jenkins will serve through the rest of semester before graduating in December.

Betsy Ide, who coordinated statewide Irene clean-up efforts for the governor, was thrilled to have three large battalions of UVMers to assign to the biggest jobs that had surfaced on the Clean Up Day website. She suggested the three locations and said in an email she found UVM’s response “inspiring.”

To recruit volunteers in the brief time between the governor’s Clean Up Day announcement and the event itself – a little more than a week – Jenkins oversaw campus-wide email blasts and reached out directly to student clubs and faculty and staff organizations. 

“I was really impressed at how many people expressed interest on such short notice,” Jenkins said. “We are an involved campus, and people had a lot going on. It was great.”

Volunteer of honor

After lunch Peavine Park got a visit from an special volunteer, Governor Shumlin himself. Shumlin was barnstorming Clean Up Day sites, accompanied by news media. Getting the word out that Vermonters had showed up for Clean Up Day in force – and that volunteers deserved credit for their community spirit – was clearly a priority for the governor. But so was rolling up his sleeves and getting to work.

Shumlin, dressed in jeans, a plaid shirt, and a outdoorsman’s black vest, hadn’t shown up empty handed. After chatting amiably with volunteers and another VIP – Congressman Peter Welch, who was also there to help with about eight of his staff – the governor fired up a chainsaw and got to work cutting down hanging branches and sectioning fallen trees.

After 45 minutes of methodical labor, Shumlin cut off the chain saw – to the relief of the state police officer shadowing him uneasily -- and was ready for the next stop.

Shumlin was impressed by UVM’s commitment to Clean Up Day.

“It’s been extraordinary,” he said. “Every stop I’ve made there have been eager, strong UVM students giving back to the state. I’m really proud of them.” 

All backs were eager, but not all belonged to energetic teens and 20-somethings. 

Janet Bramley, wife of UVM interim president John Bramley, had spent a productive day raking leaves and hauling branches.

She was delighted at the turnout, she said, but ready to call it quits as the day neared its end. 

“We’re going to sleep well tonight,” she said. 

UVM hopes to organize another day of Irene volunteering later in the semester to give more the opportunity to participate.

Watch a slideshow of the day's activities

“Foundation scour is one of the main causes of bridge failures, and in the recent case of the bridge failures in Vermont during tropical storm Irene this phenomena played a major role” says Hernandez. “Most bridges are visually inspected and repairs are made depending on the outcomes of such inspections; however it is not always possible to detect weak bridge foundations using visual inspection, mainly because they are not easily accessible. In addition, many of these structures were built using steel reinforced concrete and although reinforced concrete is a safe, versatile and economic material for bridge construction, uncoated reinforcing steel rebars can corrode with time; and in cold regions such as Vermont, permeation of deicing salts mixed with water is one of the major contributors to corrosion. Modern reinforced concrete bridges are built with coated steel rebars which significantly enhances durability,” Hernandez remarked. “Once a severely weaken structure is affected by an extreme event, such as Irene, the probability of survival are usually low.”

Hernandez emphasized “My research in structural health monitoring aims at detecting these hidden weaknesses in structures by examining vibrations induced by operational loads. If such weaknesses are detected and repaired with enough time prior to an extreme event, catastrophic bridge failures could be prevented.”

Dr. Hernandez is an Assistant Professor in the civil engineering program and received his PhD in civil engineering as a Fulbright scholar in 2007 from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. 

His research focuses on vibration based structural health monitoring and diagnosis of civil infrastructure systems, structural safety and reliability analysis, structural dynamics, earthquake engineering and optimal state and parameter estimation in second order systems.

To listen to VPR interview visit: http://www.vpr.net/episode/52148/#comments

For more information on Hernandez’ research visit: http://www.emhernandez.com

Contact information:
Eric Hernandez
Votey 359
Phone 656-3334
Eric.Hernandez@cems.uvm.edu

The university is providing the space at no cost.

The moves began the week of Sept. 19 and will continue through the week of Oct. 17.  In some cases the labs belong to UVM faculty who have agreed to share space or have voluntarily moved elsewhere.  In others the labs are vacant because faculty searches are underway or new faculty have not yet begun at the university. 

Eight scientists from the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets will relocate to four labs in the Terrill Building. The space will allow them to continue regular dairy and animal health testing and identification of agricultural invasive pests, as well as focus on issues related to flooding caused by Irene, which they will do in partnership with UVM faculty in the departments of Animal Science and Plant and Soil Science. The work will include testing crops for mycotoxin and pesticide residue, testing of dairy products for bacteria and antibiotics, and animal health testing. 

The scientists and technicians from the Department of Environmental Conservation work in the department’s Water Quality division – 18 from the Environmental Biology Lab and six from the Environmental Chemistry Lab. They will move to two large labs in James M. Jeffords Hall associated with the departments of Plant Biology and Plant and Soil Science and will continue their work monitoring the state’s air, water and soil quality.  Nine of the scientists are field biologists who will use the Jeffords Hall labs only sporadically.

“Among its many adverse impacts, tropical storm Irene disrupted vital scientific work – some of it related to the effects of the flooding it caused – that was conducted by two state laboratories in Waterbury,” said Tom Vogelmann, dean of UVM’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “We are glad to be in a position to offer appropriate laboratory space – and the support of our faculty – to both the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets and the Department of Environmental Conservation so this important work can continue.” 

“We are incredibly grateful to our partners at UVM for providing our scientists with the space they need to get the job done,” said Chuck Ross, secretary of agriculture. It is crucial for the agency to resume our traditional scope of work as well as expand our testing capabilities in order to support our farmers in the wake of Irene.”

"UVM's willingness to share laboratory space with the department's scientists has lifted our spirits,” said David Mears, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation.  “We look forward to getting back to the important work of measuring the environmental quality of our state's air, water and soil, particularly in a setting where we are surrounded by the distinguished faculty at UVM." 

The flooded laboratories for both the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets and Department of Environmental Conservation are located in the complex of buildings at 103 South Main St. in Waterbury.

Some residents like Glenn French, a Navy veteran whose mobile home and everything in it was destroyed, just wanted someone to talk to about his loss and get some advice on what to do next. “We lost everything,” says French standing in the middle of a row of decimated mobile homes. “It’s not the furniture or material things you miss, it’s the old photos and other personal memories you can’t replace. My wife cries all the time. She’s sad about losing old photos and pictures of our grandchildren. I’m just grateful for all the help we’ve received. It means a lot to us.”   

Listening to flood victims and finding ways to meet their needs were among the primary goals of Carrie Williams Howe, director of UVM’s Community-University Partnerships & Service-Learning, and co-instructor Kelly Hamshaw, a research specialist in community development and applied economics, when they created “Rebuilding Vermont: Community Engagement in Disaster Preparation and Relief” in less than a week.

“We wanted to create this course so that our response would last beyond the initial clean-up, making a commitment to long-term recovery,” says Howe, who was pleased to see 26 students from a wide variety of disciplines juggle their class schedules to add the course. “In addition, we wanted to give our students the opportunity to contribute to recovery while also thinking critically about what that engagement means.”

More than just volunteers

Characteristic of the record number (35) of service-learning courses being taught this fall at UVM, students have combined their classroom study with volunteer work in the field and reflection on that experience. In the first weeks of the course, partially based on a course created at Canterbury University in New Zealand after a series of earthquakes, students traveled to flood-damaged areas of the state and took a trip to Berlin to help distribute Carhartt clothing donated through the Williston, Vt. store Lenny’s Shoe and Apparel.

Kelsea Kuvaja, a junior human services and family development major from Maine, spent part of her day cleaning up debris outside the mobile home of Bernie Corliss, a longtime resident of the park who was rescued along with his wife by a boat whose driver happened to see the light on his cell phone. “I instantly wanted to take this course when I heard about it, because I was looking for ways to help,” says Kuvaja. “It’s my favorite class even though it’s been difficult to see what people are going through. Some of the homes had signs on the door that said, ‘Take everything.’ I think it was too much for some people to handle.”

As time passes and the needs of victims change, students will focus more on matching those needs of survivors with appropriate recovery services. At the end of a recent class, students signed up for projects involving the organization of fundraising events for farmers impacted by the flood; coordinating weekly clean-ups and staffing the volunteer center at the Waterbury Flood Recovery Center; and helping upgrade an economic development database that matches people with jobs.

“I signed up for the course because I wanted to help other people who were affected by the storm,” says junior Dylan Estabrooks, a community and international development major whose brother’s house in Northfield was damaged by the flood. “Even though federal aid has been helpful in other national disasters, local help is really needed and helps build community. We talked about the importance of asking what kind of help people need, not what we think they need. In some cases that means hauling things away, but for others it means listening to their stories.” 

Utilizing faculty expertise

In studying disaster preparation and relief, the course has drawn on existing faculty expertise. Hamshaw and Dan Baker, assistant professor in CDAE, landed a three-year, $400,000 grant in 2010 from the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Disaster Resilience for Rural Communities Program to improve disaster resilience for the 7,000 lots that are located in the state’s 245 mobile home parks (about one-third of the state’s 22,000 mobile homes) through hazard identification, community organization, emergency planning, and improved coordination between key stakeholders. Park residents will be able to access an online database featuring individual park profiles and a Building Resiliency Guide for Mobile Home Parks with best practices for improving disaster preparedness in parks.

Baker, along with former students Erin Makowsky and Kendall Kahl, developed a mobile home deconstruction project, a unique way to recycle about one-third of mobile home materials, saving the owner the bulk of the $3,000-plus cost of disposal. The State of Vermont is using this information to safely and economically recycle some of the mobile homes damaged in the flood.

Alice Fothergill, associate professor of sociology, added her experience studying the effect of disasters on  children and families to the discussion in the planning of the service-learning course, and brought students from her “Hazards, Risk and Vulnerability” course to the Weston Mobile Home Park. Fothergill says the experience of students helping family members clean up and remove personal belongings from their homes -- in some cases from rooms of teenagers not much younger than themselves -- really hit home for her students. “I think it put a face to the tragedy and got them thinking about the different ways something like this can affect families.”

“Some people lost their farm and their home and everything in it,” says Darby. “You can’t imagine the destruction until you see it. We’re trying to do everything we can -- vaccinations, testing of grain and plants, clearing fields, and just getting our hands dirty and doing what needs to be done. A lot of them are isolated, stressed out and just need someone to talk to. Once you’re there and in it and see the devastation, it’s the only thing on your mind; nothing else matters.”

Darby is among the 140 UVM Extension faculty and staff serving 11 of 14 Vermont counties who have been helping farmers deal with the aftermath of Irene. Their efforts include setting up the only lab at a public university in the Northeast that tests for mycotoxins in flooded grains; conducting tests on potentially diseased plants; administering vaccines to cattle; cleaning up flooded fields; delivering grain and shavings to farms; and perhaps most importantly, answering critical questions and connecting farmers with the appropriate state and federal agencies.

The questions have come fast and furious and require answers that could have life-altering consequences. Can I still sell my crops? How do I file a claim to receive FEMA funds? What can I replant? Do you test plants and grain for disease? What do I tell people about food safety? How do I inform customers know that my crops are safe to consume?

The goal for Extension: give farmers the immediate information and on-the-ground support they need or put them in touch with someone who can.

“We’re trying to do whatever we can to help farmers as quickly as possible,” says UVM Extension Dean Douglas Lantagne, a 1977 UVM alum in forestry with more than 25 years of experience as an Extension specialist. “We know that Vermont is susceptible to potential flooding, and there have been two updates to the state’s disaster plan in the past five years, but I’ve never seen anything in Vermont on this level. You’d have to go back to the flood of 1927 (UVM Extension was founded in 1912) for something of this magnitude.”

Getting the word out

Vern Grubinger, UVM Extension professor and vegetable and berry specialist who works out of Brattleboro Vt., says he’s visited farms that suffered produce losses in excess of $200,000, adding to the estimated $2 million in losses statewide. Farms from the Connecticut River to the Lamoille River and from Otter Creek to the White River had water come up to the 100-year flood level, he says, with some reaching the 500-year flood level. One farm lost five acres of produce and was left permanently infertile.

On the other side of the fence -- sometimes literally -- farms went untouched by Irene, leaving Grubinger and other Extension agents with the dual role of helping farmers salvage crops while also spreading the word that other farms are open for business. “Most farms were spared, and there should be plenty of safe local produce available in the next few months,” says Grubinger, who along with other Extension agents have been informing vegetable farmers about specific practices to ensure food safety, including plowing under soiled crops while harvesting those that were unaffected.

Working with state and federal agencies such as the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Farm Service Agency and putting farmers in touch with the right organization has also been a major part of Extension’s efforts.

“The faculty and staff of UVM Extension have stepped up in so many ways for Vermont and Vermont farmers in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene,” says Chuck Ross ‘78, Vermont Secretary of Agriculture. “They have traveled all over the state, made their way to isolated farms and delivered for the farmers whether it be helping to clean barns, assisting with vaccinations or problem solving questions about crops and livestock. Vermont is fortunate indeed to have such a talented and dedicated group of people working on their behalf, and the Agency of Agriculture is proud to call them partners.”

Technology plays key role in recovery effort

A number of growers have sent specimens to the UVM lab to test for potential infections. Erica Cummings, a crop and soil technician, is heading up Extension’s grain quality testing lab in Jefford’s Hall where farmers can send samples of flooded grain such as corn silage and haylage to be tested for fungal infections that produce mycotoxins that could make animals sick. That alone may become a full-time job as hundreds of samples are expected to be tested over the next few weeks.    

Technology has also played an important role in connecting farmers with each other and key agencies via message boards, websites and social media like Facebook and Twitter. Grubinger created a UVM Listserv for the Vegetable and Berry Grower’s Association a few years ago that allowed 250 growers to help each other navigate flood-related issues. Extension also set up an Emergency Management Center via UVM SharePoint that shows which farms are in need of assistance as well a webpage: “Hurricane Irene Recovery Information & Resources.”

In cases where internet access has been cut off due to power outages, Extension is still doing its best to connect those in need with help. Darby, for example, picked up the phone to call six farmers from Franklin County to see if they would help her administer vaccinations to cows in hard-hit Rochester. “I knew they could give vaccinations so I called them, and they were ready to go the next day,” she says. “Farmers really care about each other.”

How to help

Several philanthropic efforts have been established around the state to provide grants, as well as interest-free loans to affected farmers. Donations from consumers will allow these efforts to provide the necessary support to our local farmers during a time of crisis.

The following organizations accept donations and administer funds for farm disaster relief: The Vermont Community Foundation, which will be making grants to support farms of any size that have sustained losses, (802) 388-3355; The Vermont Farm Fund will be offering small, low interest loans to farmers, (802) 472-5840; NOFA-Vermont’s Farmer Emergency Fund assists organic farmers with grants and zero-interest loans, (802) 434-4122; and the Intervale Farmers Recover Fund, or (802) 660-0440.

William "Breck" Bowden, Patrick Professor of Watershed Science & Planning and director of the Vermont Water Resources and Lake Studies Center

UVM Today: What accounted for the extreme flooding seen in some parts of Vermont?

Bowden: What we had was kind of a conspiracy of three conditions. Factor one was that there were several occasions during the month of August when it rained pretty hard.  That meant the soils were already wet and their capacity to take up more water was extremely limited. The rainfall, while it didn’t always have the intensity of a summer thunder shower, lasted for 12 to 18 hours and virtually blanketed New England in a massive storm, so that was factor two. And then factor three is Vermont’s topography.  So now we’ve got wet soil with a lot of water sitting on top of it, and for a long period of time, and no place for that water to go but downhill.  And it accumulates in small rivulets and then bigger streams and then finally hits rivers like the Winooski.  And you’ve basically got a bulldozer that just runs rampant through the valley bottoms.

What kinds of areas were hardest hit?

Most of the damage is associated with places that are along rivers that had fairly large contributing areas. It’s not really the rainfall where you’re standing that counts. It’s the rainfall upstream of you.

A lot of us were hypnotized by YouTube videos of water rushing down swollen Vermont rivers. Any way to put the force of that flow in context?

Here’s a thought I had while talking with a reporter this afternoon. A Ford F-150 pickup weighs about 7,000 pounds, which is equivalent to the weight of 112 cubic feet of water. At the peak of discharge at the Winooski River dam in Essex, the river’s flow was just under 40,000 cubic feet per second. That’s the equivalent of 357 F-150s per second.  It’s no wonder that river banks and bottoms erode under this onslaught of moving mass. Water, of course, is more pliable than Ford pick-ups. But mass is mass, and momentum is momentum.  Rivers in motion can do a lot of work -- and create a lot of destruction.

Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, geospatial analyst, Spacial Analysis Laboratory

While the Spacial Analysis Lab at UVM is not normally part of disaster work, that changed during Irene. How did that come about?

O'Neil-Dunne: When the Vermont GIS (Geographic Information System) Office in Waterbury and the Emergency Operations Center were flooded, there was a gap in terms of the distribution of data, especially to the federal agencies that needed to do mapping within the state to plan for support. So one of the things we did very early on was to fortunately maintain an archive of the state's GIS data holding, so these are all the layers that will go into a map -- anything from steams and roads to the location, in the case of Vermont, of every single resident. I have that in a database. So we were able to post that data online -- it's all publicly available anyway -- and that's been downloaded by federal agencies, the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), who are working on this.

Disaster relief work is very different from what we typically do in the Spatial Analysis Lab from an end use perspective, but in terms of the data that we're working with and the techniques that we're using, this is all very standard for us.

How else have you contributed?

We started filling in on the conference calls with both USGS (United States Geological Survey) and FEMA. What they need in these disaster response situations is to know what areas they should prioritize for satellite imagery acquisition. So we've been getting information from people throughout the state -- because we're in contact with the other GIS folks through a listserv -- about where the hardest hit areas are. We're also looking at the media reports and crowd-sourced reports online.

A third thing we've been doing is taking some of the satellite imagery that's been coming in, which is mostly limited to the Connecticut River right now, and then we're mapping what flooding we can document from that. This morning, I've still been helping to coordinate data access for people who need it. You have FEMA people both working out of state and coming in state who need access to some of the state imagery and GIS resources. I'm making sure they have access to it so they can do their planning. And this, of course, is important if they're not as familiar with the state. When the satellite imagery comes in, often times it's not in a form that's usable for people who need it, so we're processing that.

Bob Parsons, Extension agricultural economist in UVM's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

What are some of the challenges farms will be facing?

Parsons: Besides the obvious wind and flood damage to barns and equipment and potential loss of topsoil, we have the whole logistics of farms. Key are whether the farms have electricity and whether their lanes and county roads are passable. And not all farms have generators necessary for milking, bulk tank cooling and pumping water. Roads are crucial to transporting milk, feed, fuel and services such as veterinary.

We can recuperate from crop losses if we have a week of warm, dry weather, a lot of problems will take care of themselves. But farms that can't get feed, fuel and milk to market may be in trouble.

Some of Vermont's most important crops -- corn, hay and even soybeans -- are still under water in many parts of the Green Mountain State. How will these crops fare?

It just depends on how long they're submerged, whether a lot of silt or stone is imbedded in the fields. We have to wait until the water recedes to assess crop damage or speculate on the long-term outcome.

Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux,  associate professor of geography and Vermont state climatologist

How does Irene fit into the history of hurricanes or tropical storms affecting Vermont?

Dupigny-Giroux: One of the things that struck me looking at the whole system evolve was the way in which it oriented toward the Hudson Valley all the way up into the Champlain Valley. Whenever you have a system that is running along two different mountain barriers, that helps steer it in such a way that allows the precipitation to fall in the same area for an extended period of time. This was so similar to what happened in 1927 when the hurricane moved up along the Connecticut Valley, moved along a frontal boundary and sort of sat there. The topography of the state -- and in this case the Appalachians which come up from the Carolinas and into New England dividing into the Green and White Mountains -- lies north-northeast to south-southwest and that has a big influence on how storm systems move through. Then factor in the state’s complex hills and ridges which cause air to rise, enhancing precipitation. There was a lot of this orographic enhancement going on as well. So when you take that basically north-south orientation on a really large storm -- it was anywhere between 300 and 400 miles wide -- that had so much moisture in it and all of that moisture enhanced by the topography then unfortunately you had large rainfall amounts, the 8 and 12 inches that we saw across different parts of the state.

From the 1900s to about 1950 or so there were more hurricanes that moved north-south and affected the northern parts of New England. And then in the second half of the 20th century they were oriented more east-west and affected New York and Massachusetts and Connecticut because they went up along the eastern part of the U.S. and turned before they even got to us. Hurricanes go through cycles and patterns, some years are more active and some are more quiet. We got into a really active pattern that started in 1990s, and we’ve been in that active pattern since then.

Can you extrapolate from this what we might expect? Does Irene say anything about the storm they’re watching in the Atlantic now?

Not necessarily. Hurricanes usually go towards the Caribbean and then curve around by Florida and go off northwards towards England. That’s because there’s a high-pressure system that usually sits in the middle of the Atlantic, and it’s kind of like a boulder: you can’t go through it usually. So the strength of that system is going to be critical and that changes over the course of the year. The other thing is the wind-flow pattern over North America. Sometimes it is so far to the east that it pushes the hurricanes offshore before they even make landfall. If that shifts westwards then there’s more of a chance for the hurricane to get steered towards us. Another really big wild card is what’s going on in the oceans. You know you need ocean water at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit for hurricanes to form. What’s going on in the Pacific is also critical. Right now they are forecasting that we are going to go back into a La Niña pattern, which is conducive to having hurricanes in the Atlantic. So if over the next two or three months La Niña continues to develop that’s not going to spell good news for Atlantic hurricanes.

Alice Fothergill, associate professor of sociology.

You’ve traveled to study flooding in Grand Forks, North Dakota and to New Orleans. This disaster more or less came to you. How do you see this storm affecting the people of Vermont?

Fothergill: I spent all day talking to my students about Irene, asking how many were from towns that were affected and half the hands went up. It’s a lot of our students.

We are a very rural state and we have these very small towns and I think one of the things that stands out in this disaster and may be similar in many ways to 1927 is these towns that are cut off, the isolation of these towns is really something that’s significant and that we have to pay attention to. It’s remarkable that there are around 12 towns that are completely cut off where they have to airlift in help. It seems like a traumatizing circumstance in that you don’t have any control, you can’t get out. These places are going to be great examples of what we’ve always known in disasters: the real first responders to the needs of survivors are other survivors. Communities are relying on each other, neighbors, friends.

But it affected the whole state which is interesting. When one community is affected or one part of a town is affected and the other half is functioning they can do so much. In Cavandish or Granville or Hancock, when the devastation is so great it’s harder to recover because they’ve all been taken out.

I was thinking about kids, because I study kids and disaster, how disruptive this is for their routines and their sense of security. They were talking about schools being closed, how long is this going to take? These periods of time are long for adults but they’re longer for kids. And I wonder (having seen it in Louisiana studying affects of Katrina) are families separated, will displacement mean that children don’t see family or friends or go to the same school? I can’t tell from the news reports but my guess is that many people aren’t going to be able to return to their homes for long periods of time. It’s a really historic event. I do see we’re getting help and that FEMA included diapers and baby formula -- it’s good, they know what people need -- when you run out of diapers you need diapers. They are thinking about families’ needs. It’s very difficult for families though. There will be displacement, loss of jobs and of course I worry about issues of family violence.

I think the evidence is already here – people will help each other, we’ll see a lot of volunteerism, but we’ll see a lot of family stress and we’ll see a lot of farms and businesses go under. For survivors, it’s months of paperwork and bureaucracy and insurance and deductibles. Disaster recovery is a difficult, long process and it’s a real strain. And the loss of infrastructure, particularly historic bridges. For the people, it’s who they are as a town, such a historic structure is an enormous loss for communities, it ties them to past generations. It’s a huge loss. I guess I worry.

Note: Read more about Fothergill's work in this week's Inside Higher Ed article, "Sociology in the Storms."

Thomas G. Noordewier, associate professor of business

How significantly do you expect the damage from Hurricane Irene to affect tourism in Vermont?

Noordewier: It’s hard to predict, but I don’t really expect a significant fall off as a result of the hurricane. In fact, these things can sometimes have a peculiar reverse effect. All of a sudden Vermont has been in the national news with all of its mountains and small country roads, and people want to know more. So to a certain extent something like this can actually put you on the radar screen in a peculiar kind of way. As long as people think that the infrastructure has had time to recover and we communicate that it has, it’s not clear that this will have a real negative affect at all. Tourism activity is close to a quarter of state employment and probably 15-20 percent of gross state product. My personal view is that the state is going to get the roads back in shape pretty quickly, and I think we’re going to make all of these destinations accessible, and so as long as that message gets out that Vermont is open for business I’m pretty positive about the future.

What are the most important steps that business owners and local and state governments can take to avoid a drop-off in visitors?

There are some tourism recovery articles in the hospitality and management area that deal with what to do after a disaster that basically say that there’s a critical information flow that has to go out to potential visitors to keep them updated and let them know that, “Hey, we’re open and ready for business.” The leadership at the state and municipal levels really need to get the word out as soon as possible when they are back up and running. In addition to the state making it clear that we haven’t shut down and that things are going to recover rapidly, travel agents and other people in the travel business should get information out about the extent of the recovery. It takes a lot work on the marketing side to overcome even a couple of days of massive news by the major networks describing how Vermont has washed away.

Bill Morris, Ph.D. candidate in plant and soil science

You've created a crowd-sourced map of Irene-related information around the state. Tell us more about that.

Morris: The crowd map is based on a program called Ushahidi. You may have heard of it before. In 2008, there was a lot of post-election violence in Kenya, and they didn't have a way of centralizing and coordinating on a map, as well as in general, what information there was. This program allowed people to send text messages to a central program and then that information would pop up on a map, so people were able to see what information was happening where in real time. Since then, it's been used in the Haiti earthquake, in Japan, and it's just a really easy way to get public information out and also consume that information in a geographical way.

The beauty of a Ushahidi deployment is that in can pull in any sort of information that's available, so if other people have set up maps, it can pull that in. (For example, Morris is configuring it to display data from this crowd-sourced map created by Seven Days). It's actually pulling in every tweet with the hashtag #VTIrene #VTFloods or #VTResponse. It's just a good central clearinghouse.

There are many, many places to go to find out information about a town or where their friends and relatives might be, but there's not really a way to see it spacially, except for this. So, if you want to receive alerts about anything within a 20 mile radius of you, this can be set up to do that. So, it's basically just geo-locating as much of this location as possible.

Can you talk about the importance of that?

Ultimately, in the mode of crisis response that we're still in now, this is helpful both to people who need information about their neighbors and also to first responders. But moving forward, it's going to be essential to documenting the extent of the damage. In circumstances like this, it's essential to emergency management officials to have good records of where the high water marks were. And as it stands, we're getting geo-located photos all over the state of that sort of thing, and they will hopefully keep rolling in.

What compelled you to create this resource?

It's just something I can do. There are a lot of people out there who are in range and have a shovel and can start digging, but this is something I know how to do, and I'd like to be useful.