(Host) Federal disaster officials have been getting a look today at the damage in central Vermont from last week’s flash floods.
They’ve seen bridges that were undermined and culverts that were washed away.
And they’ve also found big gullies where there used to be roads.
Bruce Bryan is a senior maintenance worker with the Vermont Transportation Agency.
He’s been serving as tour guide in Orange County for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And he says there are a lot of repairs to be made.
(Bryan) “It’s going to be a tremendous amount of material and a lot of man hours and equipment hours.”
(Host) FEMA experts agree that last Wednesday’s heavy rains wreaked a lot of havoc.
Jamilah Fraser is a public affairs specialist with FEMA.
She says FEMA’s job is to determine what help towns need.
(Fraser) “There was significant damage in certain areas. So what they’re going to do now is compile all that information and that data to see whether or not damage was caused to warrant federal assistance within Vermont.”
(Host) Assessment teams are calculating how much gravel and how many culverts will be needed to make repairs and how much it will all cost.
FEMA officials have visited four counties. They say the greatest damage was in Orange and Washington counties, near Barre.
Meanwhile, state officials have determined there was less damage overall to private property.
So homeowners and businesses won’t be able to rely on money from FEMA.
Instead, they may get no-interest or low-interest loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration.