Two days ago, on my way back from Good Commons, where I was shooting their fabulous Spring Feast retreat, I took 100 north through Killington and Rochester. I haven’t really been this far south since before hurricane Irene, and was surprised to see the amount of recovery Vermonters have achieved in such a short amount of time. These were some of the hardest-hit areas in the state; there are still subtle and not-so-subtle traces of Irene everywhere. I saw shiny new fire stations, freshly paved roads and fences, newly turned earth, and then the occasional demolished home (pictured below), standing as a stark reminder of the events of last August.
Passing through Waitsfield on the last leg of the journey, I made a detour to see if Whalley Park was still there. If you’ll recall, I photographed several people and families in the park as they were cleaning up, two days after the hurricane. Most said they had already given up on any possibility of keeping their trailers. Teresa, however, said that she wanted to keep her home, because she had put so much money and time into renovating it. I was saddened to see that the park had been cleared away, only an empty lot remaining in its place.
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