Tagged: Hurricane Irene

The White Mountain National Forest will be getting $4 million in federal funds to repair road and bridge damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene.  But that will still leave the enormous recreational area well short of what it needs, an official said.

It is still a bit of good news for the economy of the North Country.

Some of the work will be done by WMNF crews but help from outside contractors will be needed, said Tiffany Benna, a spokeswoman for the WMNF.

The money is available from the Federal Highway Administration, said spokesman Doug Hecox.

“It is a wonderful amount of money coming in,” said Benna.

Some New Hampshire residents are still dealing with power outages from the aftermath of the October snowstorm.

But in the Upper Valley, many businesses are still recovering from the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene.

It’s been more than two months since Irene flooded the heart of the shopping district in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

Three shopping plazas in Lebanon were hit hard during Tropical Storm Irene.

Carmella Hennessy, the zoning administrator for the City of Lebanon, says some retail outlets saw more than five feet of flooding from the nearby Connecticut River.

But she says many of those businesses are opening their doors once again.

(audio)

That was Carmella Hennessy, Zoning Administrator for the City of Lebanon.

It’s been almost a month since Tropical Storm Irene caused major floods around New Hampshire.

For most of the state the storm is a memory and life has returned to normal.

For one neighborhood in Conway, however, the storm was just the beginning.

Transvale Acres is a hardhat zone.

SFX: Hammer pounding

The Conway neighborhood was hit hard when the Saco River flooded.

The water knocked houses off foundations, crested over cars and left people homeless.

But the construction sounds aren’t just from people rebuilding.

They’re also from people tearing apart their homes.

SFX: Saw

Dana Ferren used to live here.

His trailer was knocked off its foundation by the flood.

Now he’s chopping it up to sell for scrap.

In White River Junction, a melange of fascinating businesses face challenges recovering from Irene...but not nearly so great as the obstacles facing residents of West Hartford, many of whom lost their homes to the raging White River.

Just over the border from New Hampshire in Vermont, the Upper Valley town of Hartford was ravaged by flash floods from Hurricane Irene.

Business owners and residents in the villages of White River Junction and West Hartford who have lost everything are doing what they can to dig out from the mud and debris.

But the long journey to rebuild their lives is just beginning.

Sound: (footsteps, banging)

Three rivers in the northern part of the state set new records thanks to Irene. On Sunday the water flow was more than 100 times normal for the Saco and more than that for the East Branch of the Pemigewasset and the Pemi. 

During Irene’s visit anyone who looked at the torrents called the Saco, East Branch of the Pemigewasset and the Pemigewasset probably guessed that the horrifying amount of water tearing past was a record.

And that was the case, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“The Saco River, over 89 years of data collection, we had the highest recorded flows in the Saco.”

That’s Keith Robinson. He is the director of the USGS water-science center covering New Hampshire.