<div>Flooding is becoming part of the new normal for people in the river valleys of Vermont. It has people debating whether they should even try to stay in their homes.JUANA SUMMERS, HOST: The tiny state of Vermont has a reputation for being a place that's relatively safe from the worst impacts of human-driven climate change. But as Vermont Public's Abagael Giles reports, a recent series of climate-fueled flooding disasters has some residents worried.ABAGAEL GILES, BYLINE: On a single day in late July, a summer storm dropped a record eight inches of rain in 24 hours over a rural region of Vermont known as the Northeast Kingdom. Rivers and brooks swelled rapidly and jumped their banks. Homes that sat in the same place for hundreds of years were swept away. Jeff Corrow is the fire chief in Lyndonville.JEFF CORROW: This is an event that we never had before to this degree. So we're venturing down a road that, yeah, we haven't been on, and it's not a good road to be on.GILES: It was the second time in a month the town saw flooding, and Lyndonville wasn't alone. Some Vermont towns were flooded at least three times in the last year. Washington County, Vt., home to the state's capital, is tied for being the second-most disaster-prone county in America. That's if you count the number of federal disaster declarations through 2023. And this kind of heavy rainfall - it's something the Northeast is seeing more of because of human-caused climate change.Jonathan Winter is a professor at Dartmouth College who studies this. His research finds the Northeast now sees 50% more extreme precipitation than it did before 1995. As the atmosphere warms, it can hold more moisture, and that means more rain. So far, it seems in the Northeast...JONATHAN WINTER: We're getting the same storms. They just have more fuel to work with once they get here.GILES: It's a trend Winter says will likely continue as the climate warms but could be made much better if the world cuts planet-warming pollution. Still, it's come as an unpleasant surprise for some. Jon Wagner co-owns Bare Roots Farm in central Vermont's Williamstown, where he grows organic vegetables. Wagner used to farm on Long Island, but that ended after his fields were inundated with saltwater during Superstorm Sandy. He says the vegetables turned black overnight.JON WAGNER: So we decided to move up to Vermont - a landlocked place where, theoretically, it couldn't flood. But turns out it can.GILES: After nearly a decade of drought, something else Vermont is seeing more of with climate change, a flash flood and sustained wet weather swept away about 75% of their harvest last summer.WAGNER: We basically came into the season on credit card debt, so we're still kind of like, you know, a week at a time, trying to just stay afloat.GILES: This year, they're growing everything they can up on higher ground.WAGNER: We've got a big field of winter squash, pumpkins in here. We got sweet dumpling there, heirloom varieties.GILES: But in some places, higher ground brings its own hazards in a changing climate. In the tiny mountain town of Ripton, the big concern is landslides wiping out their mostly dirt roads. Last summer, during a torrential rainstorm, a hillside collapsed in the night, sweeping an entire home off its foundation before the owner's eyes.LAURIE COX: Landslides were not really a thing up here.GILES: Laurie Cox is an elected official in Ripton.COX: All of that makes one realize that everything that you thought was solid under your feet isn't always solid.GILES: Ripton is looking at rebuilding an old road so emergency vehicles can get in and out if the highway is swept away, and state officials have called for a new statewide landslide task force to coordinate evacuations during storms. A new state law passed this year makes it harder to build new homes in places where rivers could wash them away. Farmer Jon Wagner says he no longer thinks of Vermont, or any place, as safe in a changing climate.For NPR News, I'm Abagael Giles in Williamstown, Vt.(SOUNDBITE OF KAYTRANADA'S "WEIGHT OFF")Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.</div>

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Climate-fueled flooding in Vermont is causing both worry and adaptation

Flooding is becoming part of the new normal for people in the river valleys of Vermont. It has people debating whether they should even try to stay in their homes. The tiny state of Vermont has a reputation for being a place that's relatively safe from the worst impacts of human-driven climate change. But as Vermont Public's Abagael Giles reports, a recent series of climate-fueled flooding disasters has some residents worried.

Climate-fueled flooding in Vermont is causing both worry and adaptation

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