Vermont Travel after Irene
 

Yikes, if you're in the aftermath of the storm zone you probably aren't reading this message, but if so, how is the situation in Vermont ? We are planning to go to a wedding in Hartford, CT on Sept. 10th and then head up to Vermont /New Hampshire for a few days . Our original plan took us up I-91 and cutting over towards Rutland, Middlebury, Shelburne, with a stay in Burlington. The next day we were planning to go to Stowe, St.Johnsbury, the White Mountains of NH (second nite stay). We are flying back to the midwest out of Boston after another nite there. Have been to all these places long ago (like, 20 years or more). Now we're hearing of bridges washed out and flooded towns., mostly in VT. Would it be better just to go from Hartford CT to the White Mountains in New Hampshire(which sounds like it didn't get the bad stuff like VT), or avoid New England altogether? Where can I we get some reliable info about this?

I live in west central New Hampshire, near Dartmouth. This area came away relatively unscathed other than lots of rain. A few dirt roads have had some damage, and power was out for a few hours, but as of now we are pretty much back to normal. We did our usual 10 mile bike ride on the back roads of Meriden & Cornish NH, and it was as beautiful as ever. Strangely, parts of Vermont very close by were really hammered. Many Vermont towns are still cut off due to flooding, and there has been considerable damage to many homes and businesses. However, I suspect by Sept 10 most areas will be ok for visiting.
A few comments on your itinerary - Vermont & New Hampshire are very beautiful, but I wouldn't go out of my way to visit Rutland or St. Johnsbury. You might want to consider Woodstock Vt, Hanover NH, Waitsfield & Warren Vt and Sugar Hill NH as places to explore.

We are scheduled to visit the area around Killington Sept. 19th (Mendon VT).
I was able to locate a couple of websites that might be helpful in keeping you up on how things are going.

The power outage situation can be accessed at:

http://www.cvps.com/CustomerService/...s/default.aspx

Road conditions and closures can be found at:

http://511.vermont.gov/main.jsf?minL...axLon=-72.9542

Hopefully these links work for you.
Good luck

Most of the whole state is inaccessible. All major rds in the whole state damaged. In some cases just washed away. Many communities isolated, no way in or out - Killington, Mendon, Wilmington, Pittsfield, Quechee and many more. No access to grocery stores, med care, fuel. People trying to walk out pulling luggage along highway. Propane tanks swirling in the river in Woodstock. Covered bridges swept away. Simon Pierce glass factory in Quechee heavily damaged. Base lodge at Killington ski area collapsed. Damage is so devastating and wide spread that repairs will take some time. Anyone with plans to go to VT in the next few weeks, including for foliage season, should keep updated. You may not be able to get to your destination. Keep Vermonters in your prayers.

It is amazing how there isn't much damage in NH except for some areas like Canann and Thornton (which is in the I93 area) but VT got hit really bad. I wouldn't count VT out entirely since a lot of repairs will be made by the time of your visit. But, it will be a long time before the covered bridges are replaced. And some places, like the popular Simon Pierce restaurant and glass factory, might be closed for repairs for a long time.

I read there was some damage to the Kancmangus Hwy in NH but, again, repairs could be done by then. If not, I actually prefer a more southerly route thru Tamworth and Center Sandwich to go from west to east.

Like zootsi, nothing bad in the Concord NH area. Merrimack River is very high (I wouldn't go kayaking this weekend.) Our very old maple that lost a huge limb last weekend, didn't lose a branch during Irene.

Its too soon to tell. There are communities literally cut off. Chunks of Route 7 and 4 and gone. People are stranded at Killington Resort due to roads being out. It's going to take a lot of time to clean up the mess.
I would post back next week.I would assume that the major roads will at least be passable by then. Some of the town secondary roads on the other hand.

Was wondering how this will impact the 'Leaf Peepers' and fall foliage season (uh, yeah, clearly not good for this year .....).

Yesterday's blog in Yankee Magazine had good overview, and probably will provide more updates in coming weeks >>>>
http://blogs.yankeemagazine.com/new-...rricane-irene/

Sure hope major rds are passable by foliage season. It's a big revenue maker for those of us who own property in VT, locals and part timers alike. Business people count on that revenue. But, water and sewer systems also need to be rebuilt in many places, as well as businesses and restaurants. A monumental undertaking. Hoping for the best. As soon as the state is up and running, all Fodorites should go to VT and spread some $$ around!!

OP is looking to go to VT in about 2 weeks; from the looks of reports on TV and from what folks are posting here - it sure sounds like that things will be far from "ready for visitors" in 2 weeks. Their resources will be stretched to accommodate residents and may not leave much left for visitors.

I realize how much peepers add to the economy but this year it just may not happen. And how many trees are down and how many lost vast amounts of leaves, there may not be much left to peep at and the remaining leaves may have been killed and not even turn.

I would check out leaf peep sites to keep appraised of the situation. http://www.leafpeepers.com/

Thanks for the (sobering!) advice. Will have to try somewhere else, perhaps Maine or Cape Cod?

So sorry to hear that about Simon Pearce and everyone and everything else that suffered real damage in the storm.

donnawho --

Don't rule out New Hampshire just yet ! As dfrostnh said, much of NH is still okay .... and I also have family in Concord, NH area and may be headed that way in October.

Rt.7 is out between Rutland and Manchester and Rt. 4 is out east of Rutland..plus much more damage. Bridges are out and I have a friend who is stranded in her home in the mountains, cut off by the water.FEMA is aware of her situation.

I'm in the Lake Sunapee area and we have virtually no damage. A few downed trees and some flooding around rivers that is already dissipating. No power outage around here, although a co-worker lives in Contoocook and has been without power since Saturday (isolated instance -- people down the road have power). No reason at all not to come to NH.

I live near Contoocook and we only lost power for about 8 hours. It was back on a 6:30 pm.
I don't think trees have lost leaves. I check Brattleboro newspaper website and saw that although the farmers market was a raging river and some booths destroyed, they plan to be open on Sat. It's a gorgeous sunny day in Concord NH. 49 degrees when I got up this morning.
I think there are plenty of places in VT you can visit this weekend but just check ahead to see what conditions are. I got a note from a friend in Brandon who said their downtown is closed but her road is fine. I did not check conditions in Middlebury. Except for flooding in some areas, most of NH didn't get the worst of the storm. The eye traveled up the center of the state, slightly to the west.

If you go to the Vermont Emergency response site http://vem.vermont.gov/press/1500_irene
you can see that NOT "all major roads in the state are damaged"

Here is a list of VT towns worst hit as reported in the Upper Valley (NH) news 8/30
VTrans spokesperson Chris Cole said part or nearly all of 11 communities remained unreachable: Bennington, Cavendish, Chester, Granville, Killington, Ludlow, Mendon, Middletown Springs, Rochester, Stockbridge and Wilmington. (A list of road closures can be found at http://www.511vt.com/).

If you go to the 511vt website, you'll have to zoom in because at first it looks like the whole state is full of road closures.

I live and work on a farm in Warren. The devastation here is pretty big; bridges are out, and currently you can't go any further south on route 100 than Warren village. The farm next to ours was completely destroyed.

Right now a lot of people are helping affected businesses clean up, and farmers are trying to get a game plan for the next season since most crops were destroyed or rendered unsellable since they were flooded.

Vermont is a state that relies on the tourist dollar, and without you all the state of Vermont will be losing a lot more revenue, and more jobs will be lost. On your trip up to Vermont please help support our state, not just by sightseeing and "peeping", but by also shopping at local retailers, restaurant, farm stands and farmers markets.

What a horrible mess. Thanks for telling us what it's like.
I'd come to Vermont as soon as y'all are ready for visitors if I could.

Since I wasn't planning to be in VT and NH until Sept. 12th, I think I will wait a while before canceling the planned visit. Thanks for all the info; best of luck to all the people & businesses that are dealing with this crisis....

Northern Vermont fared well. Places like Stowe did not see damage. Southern Vermont and Central VT is where the damage is. 100 is heavily damaged. Route 4 is heavily damaged. Many secondary roads are washed out. There are many, many photos on Facebook. Vermont Flooding 2011 (on Facebook) and WCAX's facebook pages seem to have the most info/photos.

My thoughts and prayer are with you all. I will be traveling to Vermont early October. I do plan to shopat local farmstands and eat at local restaurants. I hope everyone that has planned a trip to Vermont, will keep with thier plans and not let a few detours keep them from enjoying this beautiful country. God Bless

Work on the Kanc and Bear Notch will get that fixed up by leaf peeping time. There's a month to get repairs done by leaf peeping season. The state governments know the tourist dollars are important.

I think some of this advice is based more on hope than reality. See
http://littlebangtheory.wordpress.co...e-damage-done/
for pictures of Western Massachusetts and Southern Vermont.

Is it better to have a one shot tourist who has a lousy experience and doesn't come back or a satisfied tourist who comes back year after year? I don't have the answer.

I live in a place whose economy is entirely dependent on tourism, and this could be a very difficult year for the folks up north.

I'm still looking into our VT trip this weekend. This map from Google doesn't look good for the Manchester area (where I was planning to stay). If we head up the 91 will we make it without considerable detours?

http://crisislanding.appspot.com/?cr...ooding_vermont

Here's the link that shows some lane closures on I91.
http://511.vermont.gov/main.jsf

17 hours ago, according to one of the threads in your post sassy-cat, the previously isolated 13 communities now have some sort of access (which might be restricted).

We're still planning to visit the Brattleboro farmers market which will be held in a different location if the regular location is not suitable. It was a raging river on Sunday. Then going up I91 to Norwich.

In response to Ackislander: some places suffered such severe damage i.e. Simon Pearce that they may be out of commission a long time. But, other places did not receive any damage. A friend didn't have any problem at all but 7 miles away, her mother's apartment building was severely damaged. A trip to VT this year might take additional planning and willingness to go to Plan B. According to the 511 map, roads in the western part of VT look better - maybe a trip to Shelburne Museum or Shelburne Farms?

I got a call from the British School of Falconry at the Equinox, VT yesterday and they have tree/ flood damage to deal with.
We were supposed to take an introductory lesson on Monday but that won't be possible and they weren't sure how long the clean up would take.

Rain and isolated thunderstorms are forecast for Sunday/Monday! I'm thinking we need to reschedule this overnight trip.

We have rescheduled for early October. I think the area we're going to will have recovered sufficiently by then and hopefully we'll see some fall foliage near it's peak. :)

It ought to be beautiful!

Thanks, dfrostnh!
This weekend was starting to turn into more of a stressful weekend rather than the R&R we'd planned even without taking into consideration the flooding in Vermont.
We have been waiting all day for a UHaul (booked for 10am but likely to be available by 5pm!) to take my son to college. It looks like tomorrow will be now be move-in day.
Now I will relax at home on Sunday instead.

Hope you enjoy the Brattleboro market! Please make a note of the best food stalls. I checked the website and I think it'll make a great place to stop for lunch in October.

woo hoo! The Brattleboro market will be OPEN! A video earlier this week showed a raging river thru the market area but with a lot of good planning, hard work and lots of volunteers, they've fixed things up. I expect we'll encounter detours on our VT day trip but it will be fun. Sassy_cat, I'll report back.
BTW NH tv news last night had someone from Clark's Trained Bears telling people they are open and there's lots to do this weekend in NH's White Mountains.

http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_18809909

Thanks for the update!

The Champlain Valley of Vermont, including Middlebury and the Burlington area, fared well during Irene, with barely any damage at all. We can be accessed by Rt. 22A on the west side of the state, or Rt. 91 to Rt. 89 to Burlington. Crews are diligently working to re-open Rts. 4, 125, 100 and others where there were washouts. Please don't pass us by during foliage season!It will still be beautiful, with plenty to see.

colbeck -
Good to hear repairs are underway.
Any further updates from the Green Mountain State ???

I'm going to Woodstock Oct 3-5. The B&B where I am staying had an update on the damage in Woodstock and seems it wasn't too bad and the town is recovering. I was going to do the Rt 100 drive as it was recommended by many. Will some sections of the road still be closed then? I know repairs can take some time. I'm sure there will still be plenty to see but just wondering what progress is being made. I'm so sorry for all the devastation Vermont has had to deal with.

Hi Paula,

Check VERMONT ROAD CONDITIONS
http://crisislanding.appspot.com/?cr...ooding_vermont

((I))

A heartwarming story at
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/a...text|FRONTPAGE