After floodwaters surged through the center of Plainfield, Vermont, on July 10, 2023, and into the basement of the apartment building he owned, Arion Thiboumery wasted no time in tackling the mess.
After floodwaters surged through the center of Plainfield, Vermont, on July 10, 2023, and into the basement of the apartment building he owned, Arion Thiboumery wasted no time in tackling the mess. He mucked out the basement, hauled damaged goods to the dump, and started mulling how he’d brace for the next flood.
“My thinking was, ‘Okay, a 100-year flood is now a 10-year flood; I’ve got to see if there’s additional shoring up I need to do,’” he recalls.
Exactly one year from that date, Plainfield awoke to new scenes of destruction. The Mill Street bridge over the Great Brook had been swept away, and most of Thiboumery’s building had collapsed into the stream, now swollen with 5 inches of rain. Dozens of homes were damaged or destroyed.
Read More: Yale Environment 360
