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One Year Out, Hardest Hit by Irene Make Slow Comeback

NHPR Staff Photo

A year ago Tropical Storm Irene devastated parts of Northern New Hampshire. One hard-hit business was the Crawford Notch campground, which was cut off from the rest of the state for three days by the storm.

Campground owner, Richard Garabedian, watched Tropical Storm Irene wash away 1.6 acres of his riverside campground, and the only roads that connected his business to the rest of the state.

He chuckles and says, "I still don’t sleep when it rains."

He says the repairs cost more than six-figures, which he had to get through bank loans because FEMA aidwasn’t allocated to businesses. Thinking back he remembers saying, "I’m washed out here, I lost land, I gotta rebuild all my roads, I got picnic tables I can’t find; all washed away destroyed."

But despite the expense and the slow permitting process Garabedian says his and other North Country businesses are making a modest recovery. 

The economy is still tough for businesses that rely on tourism, but Garabedian says "Mother nature has cooperated on the weather front this year. It has been some very nice weekends."

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.
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