HARDWICK — In 2024, Hardwick Neighbor to Neighbor (HNtN) helped more than 140 neighbors in various ways.
In 2023 HNtN began running the area Support and Supply Center on High Street, which had initially been established by the Civic Standard after that year’s flooding. While the floods were unfortunate, that experience left HNtN well prepared to set-up and manage the center after the 2024 flood, exactly one year later.
Photo by Raymonda Parchment
Fourteen volunteers immediately rallied to staff the center, which was open 12 hours per day, seven days a week, for two weeks. Many residents availed themselves of the dehumidifier, shop vac, and sump pump loans. Muck Out Kits (buckets filled with many of the basic supplies needed for cleanup) and fans were again in high demand. Supplemental supplies of cleaning agents, gloves, tarps and other critical items were available.
Approximately 80 residents visited the center to secure needed supplies. In addition, Kim Hartling Wells, a long-standing HNtN volunteer, again organized several youth muck-out crews, which provided assistance to multiple homes.
When the immediate demands of the flood response abated, HNtN offered the town logistical support to capture the “lessons learned” from these two flood incidents. The town has a Local Emergency Management Plan (LEMP), detailing key steps for how the town manager, town road foreman, police chief and zoning administrator establish and manage an emergency operations center. That plan lacks details on the mobilization and coordination of local groups and organizations; those who play a critical role in the first post-disaster days and weeks, when resident needs are most acute, but before most outside groups arrive to help. HNtN has offered to play an essential role during this time period.
In a deepening effort to document and formalize Hardwick’s boots-on-the-ground disaster response, HNtN and the Town of Hardwick joined forces to organize a LEMP Steering Committee. Its goal is to refine and document Hardwick’s unique and effective approach to emergency management and to produce a formalized framework that becomes integrated into the LEMP. This will endure over time, ensuring the timeliness and effectiveness of our community emergency response.
HNtN helped organize a meeting with the town manager, zoning administrator, rescue squad, police chief, Civic Standard, Hardwick Area Health Center and others to capture their reflections on what emergency response steps were successful and what could be improved. HNtN then mapped every service and volunteer organization in town and the region (e.g. Council on Aging) and seven volunteers conducted 15 in-depth interviews, asking about each group’s response to the floods and their capacity to be mobilized in some helpful way in a future disaster.
Town employees, 18 Hardwick Neighbor to Neighbor volunteers and the Civic Standard staff, used that information to create a framework with four key committees: the Emergency Communication Committee, the Emergency Shelter Committee, the Supply and Support Center, and the Volunteer Mobilization Committee.
The committees formed in the late fall, after a post-flood community forum, and have been developing detailed plans to address local emergencies across three phases: preparedness before an event, active response during an event and short-term recovery in the days and weeks following an event. The work involves outreach to vital community partners who play a key role in emergency support and recovery.
A grant from the Vermont Council on Rural Development funds consultants Cynthia Stuart and Karen Horn who have worked with the committees to develop a document that will be an addendum to the Town’s LEMP.
The work of the committees will guide future development of website pages dedicated to the ongoing work of the four committees, community gatherings to share the information and handouts for all residents to keep and reference in the event of emergencies.
Hardwick efforts will serve as a case study to inform other community’s emergency readiness planning and a model for potential implementation.
The committee’s work and updates to the Local Emergency Management Plan are expected to be available for public feedback and engagement by early spring of 2025.
Community members interested in contributing to local emergency preparedness and response efforts may contact Helen Beattie at [email protected]
As 2024 appeared to be drawing to an uneventful close, a fire in East Hardwick left 15 individuals without homes. HNtN immediately contacted the town manager, offering to help coordinate support for the tenants, work with the landlord to assess needs and contact community groups and organizations.
A supportive network for those individuals and families was quickly created. HNtN Jeudevine Library volunteers utilized social media avenues to post requested items, collect donations and distribute them to the families based on their stated needs.
Once again, the local community organized meal trains organized by Cheryl Michaels of the East Hardwick Neighborhood Organization (EHNO) and Ceilidh Kane. Clothing made available through Angel Outfitters, donations and countless offers of support from many individuals and organizations supplemented the town’s immediate efforts to mobilize key resources.
HNtN has provided on-going volunteer support for residents since its inception in 2020 and has served as a communications resource hub. More recently, it has partnered with the town to respond to local disasters and to help tune emergency preparedness in anticipation of future emergencies.
HNtN has a core team of 28 volunteers ready to respond to community needs, both large and small. In addition to those volunteers, others respond through social media and local community forums when more general assistance is requested.
Jeudevine library staff helped 60 neighbors by connecting volunteers to tasks, making referrals when necessary and distributing Salvation Army vouchers to help with gas, groceries and electric bills. Volunteers provided rides to the grocery store, pharmacy, doctor’s appointments and for haircuts, as well as assistance with stacking firewood. Volunteers cared for pets when their owners were in the hospital, removed water from flooded basements, tilled gardens, helped move heavy furniture into new homes and even put up storm windows and insulation.
