Today our hometown paper, the Waterbury Record, published a feature about our book launch party for When the River Rose.

You can read it at the Waterbury Record.

On March 9, we threw a book launch party for When the River Rose at the Green Mountain Coffee Visitor Center & Cafe at Waterbury Station. It was an incredible event that was featured in a segment on Vermont Public Radio.

The VPR segment included quotes from Waterbury’s David Goodman, who edited the book; Sue Minter, who is helping lead the recovery efforts; and Gordon Miller, a long-time resident who donated photography to the book project. You can listen to the segment at VPR.net.

The book party was a huge success: We sold more than 100 books to a veritable flood of folks from the community, who came out to hear David Goodman and Duncan McDougall speak, watch Gordon Miller’s slideshow, and listen to personal stories from When the River Rose read by their authors – the citizens of Waterbury.

We were even serenaded by two very talented high school students who wrote a song about the flood and sang it to the crowd in perfect harmony.

The interview focused on the devastating impact of last summer’s floods on the town of Waterbury, and how Goodman and McDougall gathered flood stories and worked together with a small team to develop When the River Rose as a benefit for flood relief.

You can watch the segment at WCAX.com.

When the River Rose was featured prominently in this “Stuck in Vermont” video by Eva Sollberger of Seven Days. In the video, a “cash mob” descends on Waterbury’s Bridgeside Books to buy a whole lot of books in a short, wild burst.

You’ll get the idea. Just check out the video!

Nina Brennan (right) and Phyllis Berry clean mud from in front of the Proud Flower store Aug. 29 in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene in Waterbury. / TOBY TALBOT, The Associated Press

Wilson Ring of the Associated Press wrote a recent feature about When the River Rose and other Tropical Storm Irene flood books and story projects. The feature was picked up by newspapers and websites across the U.S., including the Burlington Free Press, Bennington Banner, and Brattleboro Reformer in Vermont; the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire; and Boston.com, the website of the Boston Globe.

You can read the story at the Burlington Free Press.

This is a story about one good Samaritan, Ryan Connally, who personified the thousands of volunteers who came to Waterbury – and Vermont – to help in the wake of Irene.

On Sunday afternoon, day seven of clearing debris, a young man with a backpack and hiking boots appeared at our house at 21 Elm Street asking if we could use help. He said his name was Ryan Connelly and he had a couple of hours to give someone a hand.

We were glad to have his help and energy as we were winding down after long hours of debris removal. Ryan went to work with my son-in-law, Todd Pudvar, in the basement, taking down silt-laden ductwork and throwing it outside. We worked about three hours clearing out the basement while Ryan shared his story with us. He had spent the summer on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska and had come to Vermont to attend a friend’s wedding in Calais. He was hitchhiking from Calais to the Burlington airport to return to North Carolina and stopped to listen to the afternoon music at Rusty Parker Park. While there, Ryan asked one of our neighbors, Corey Hackett, who might need help for a few hours. Corey suggested he check at 21 Elm Street. We sure appreciated Ryan’s energy boost and his help at the end of the day.

We told Ryan about the dinner for volunteers and flood victims at St Leo’s Hall. He didn’t have a place to stay so we let him spend the night upstairs in the Methodist Church and in the morning Todd drove him to the airport.

This is just one example of the many, many hours given by good Samaritans from all over the country.  They have come to our state and our town to assist us when we were in need. This help kept many of us going in the face of the large task ahead. We are ever thankful for their gift of time and hope to one day to be able to return the gift to someone else in similar need. Thank you to all the good Samaritans and may God bless you.

- Skip Flanders, assisted by Jan Gendreau

My department at the hospital where I work was wonderful about arranging time off for me. I was basically told to take the time that I needed, which was an amazing gift. They wanted to do more, but I initially thought there was little they could do from Burlington.

A few days after the flood, we realized that we needed to dry out the house, and do so quickly, if we wanted to escape the threat of mold and rot. Steve tried to locate some dehumidifiers – we had one before the flood, but it had been in the basement and thus was submerged and ruined – but the stores were all out and local friends’ machines were spread far and wide with so many wet houses. I put a call in to my department asking if anyone could loan us dehumidifiers or fans.

The next morning we got to our house to start working and found a big collection of dehumidifiers and fans sitting on our front porch. One of the attending physicians had shuttled around to department members’ homes to collect the machines and then driven down to deliver them to our home. I burst into tears at the sight: love in the time of Irene.

My program director showed up that afternoon with still more machines to loan. We had 10 dehumidifiers running 24/7 for more than a week. At first we were pulling in excess of 20 gallons of water each day out of the house. By the time we measured the moisture content of any wood it was down to 8%, which I think may have been drier than it was before the flood.

The FAHC Anesthesia Department played a big part in saving our home.

- Amy Odefey

When Irene struck Waterbury, my wife Cathy and I were driving home from Minerva, Wisconsin. We had just attended the 40^th wedding anniversary of my brother, Sid, and his wife, Cheryl. We were in touch with family and friends by cell phone and were aware of the flooding at our home at 21 Elm Street, which sits at the end of Elm Street and looks down Randall Street. Our daughter, Karen, and her husband, Todd Pudvar, made two trips to the house, one by kayak, to move many items upstairs. We were very thankful that they were able to save family albums and historical postcards. The flood waters came and left during the night, rising to a level of 29 inches on the first floor.

Family and friends had already removed much of the furniture and debris along with plaster and lath by the time we arrived home Monday night. The process of drying the interior and replacing the foundation continued over the next few weeks.

A couple of weeks in, my brother Sid drove out from his home in Watertown, Wisconsin to help with the work of restoring the house. For a week I worked with our son Steven, son-in-law Todd, and my brothers, Sid and Ray, restoring floors, removing siding, installing windows and doors. It was a great time working together sharing stories and seeing first hand the skill and dedication to the task.

Cathy and I are temporarily living with Karen and Todd, who own the old Flanders family home at 65 North Main Street. I tell folks I’m back in my old room, but the rules are different! Sid also stayed with us while he was here. It was like old times when we were growing up and living in that house and walking to school. The highlight of the week was on Thursday night when Karen and Todd hosted a family gathering. Cathy prepared a meal that was enjoyed by Ray and his wife Eloise, Sid, Karen and Todd, and family friend, Jan Gendreau, who had spent many hours cleaning at the house. Many wonderful stories of the times growing up together in the house at North Main Street were shared, resulting in much laughter!

We are ever thankful for the faithful help of family and friends and for the memories that will long be remembered, thanks to Irene, who created the opportunity for us to be together and to work together.

- Skip Flanders, assisted by Jan Gendreau

Our family has a dairy farm in Middlesex. Many of our cornfields were hit, from Waterbury to Montpelier.

My husband’s grandmother said, “Somedays I’d like to be discouraged, but I know I don’t have the option.”

- Amy Scribner

I went to work the morning after the flood! We had been evacuated and stayed the night with our friends April and Zach Taylor on Perry Hill. I woke up early the next morning, and with little comprehension of what had just happened, swung down into the village on my way to work.

I saw Tom Stevens and Don Schneider, and a bunch of other folks I know, plus lots of media players, all standing near the Alchemist. They were gazing down Elm Street, which was still filled with water. I asked someone how Randall Street had fared and was told the Drakes had three feet of water in their first floor, which is on about the same level as my house. I had no idea what to do with that information, so I got back in my car and drove up to Fletcher Allen Health Care, where I was on a rotation in the Emergency Department. On the way I passed Bolton Flats, which was still filled with flood water, and the Richmond Park and Ride lot, which was also still flooded and had cars all jumbled up on top of each other.

I called my husband Steve then, knowing that he had been on his way to check on the house. I still thought we might just have some water in our basement, which had previously remained dry even during the heaviest of rainstorms.

I don’t know what I was thinking! He had just arrived at the house and all he could say was that it was really bad. A bit later he called me back and told me to come home right away. So I walked into the ED and told them I had to go home, which I did. Looking back, I just don’t understand why I behaved in such an illogical manner. It all seemed so unreal.

- Amy Odefey