Ten years before Hurricane Henri proved to be a sheep in wolf’s clothing, a storm named Irene left real havoc in its wake after taking an unusual inland path and sweeping through western New England.
Towns in Massachusetts and Vermont were devastated by weather conditions rarely seen in this part of the country and it took some municipalities nearly a decade to receive storm repair reimbursements from the state and federal governments. But as the tempest’s 10th anniversary approached, officials in Massachusetts towns affected by Irene seem to believe their communities have bounced back, with valuable experience acquired.
Irene, by then a tropical storm, lasted at least two days in the area, on Aug. 27 and 28, 2011.
Colrain Fire Chief Nicholas Anzuoni had been on the job about a year and a half when Irene slammed the area and recalls all the major rivers, particularly the Green River, overflowing and flooding the town’s Highway Department building and a bunch of houses. He said his crew members waded through water to rescue a person from their home. He mentioned his department had received water flotation devices just days before the storm struck.
“Sections of Green River Road were literally obliterated and washed into the river,” Anzuoni recounted.
He said the community banded together and everyone pitched in to help in any way they could. He said some displaced families were taken in by a local church while others were allowed to stay in the store at Pine Hill Orchards. The chief said Irene taught locals how to prepare for a catastrophic storm.
One of the hurricane’s casualties was Ann Brauer Quilt Studio at 2 Conway St. in Shelburne Falls, which floodwaters from the Deerfield River lifted off its foundation and floated away. Video of the event can be viewed at: bit.ly/3mE0xcN.
Owner Ann Brauer was at a large craft show in Chicago when the storm struck and watched the horrifying footage on the cellphone of glass artist Josh Simpson, who owns Salmon Falls Gallery up the hill from the studio and was also at the craft show to sell his art.
“It was very strange to watch it,” she said this week. “It was awful. I couldn’t figure out how to cope. I was trying to sell work. … I was dealing with the public, trying to hold it together, smile sweetly and try to figure out the next steps. I had to deal with the craft show, I had to load up my van, and I had to start driving and I had no idea what the future would hold.”
She said she drove home two days later and salvaged what she could. She explained the pink building — a garage in the 1930s — was stopped downriver by two maple trees. She said her 1965 Singer Industrial sewing machine survived in the wreckage (though its motor needed to be replaced) and she was fortunate enough to have had half of her quilts with her in Chicago. Most of her fabric had to be thrown away, though she said other quilters and craft stores donated material to her.
“The community was amazing,” said Brauer, who had no business insurance.
She said she rented space on Bridge Street for 2½ years before deciding to rebuild at 2 Conway St.
Nancy Dole, who owns Nancy L. Dole Books & Ephemera in Shelburne Falls, witnessed the quilt studio get washed away and remembers it vividly.
“I live on the Buckland side. I came down, as many people did, to see what was going on. I was at McCusker’s Market talking to people and my back was to the river,” she recounted, adding that the people she was speaking with pointed it out when the studio was lifted off its foundation. “Everybody watched it as it went down Conway Street and actually pirouetted, I call it, and turned itself around like it was in a square dance or something and, thankfully, hit a tree.”
Dole said the storm made her realize and respect the power of water.
“You can’t tell what Mother Nature is going to give you,” she said.
The Boston Herald reported the storm caused an estimated $90 million in damage. According to NBC News, Hurricane Irene resulted in at least 44 deaths in the United States, including one in Massachusetts when a Southbridge public works employee was electrocuted by a downed power line. The storm left state residents without utilities or running water.
After the storm, then-Gov. Deval Patrick secured a Major Disaster Declaration for the state, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse towns for 75 percent of all approved repair costs. On May 22, 2018, state Sen. Adam G. Hinds, D-Pittsfield, then-state Rep. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, and Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru, announced Buckland, Colrain and Hawley would receive a combined $895,976 for storm repair reimbursements in the supplemental budget for the fiscal year that ended that June.
Hussain Hamdan, who now serves on the Hawley Board of Selectmen and the Hawley Volunteer Fire Department, played a role in coordinating the response on the town’s western side with several other individuals, both officially and unofficially affiliated with town government.
“The damage was extraordinary in magnitude,” he said in an email to the Greenfield Recorder. “I’d call it a once-in-a-lifetime event and certainly the biggest flood-related destruction in Hawley since the hurricane of 1938. Many of our roads run next to brooks and the Chickley River runs along Route 8A (our main highway in west Hawley). We had enormous washouts in multiple places on both the east and west side of town and it took help from the National Guard’s road crews as well as private contractors to fix all of it. Some secondary back roads took years to be repaired.”
Hamdan said he was extremely proud of the efforts of Hawley residents in the storm’s immediate aftermath. He said people loaned out generators, brought water to those without power and some with generators even offered space in their refrigerators and freezers to save perishable food items owned by people who had lost electricity. However, he said, the atmosphere became more divisive months later when the town coordinated a project to excavate and redirect the Chickley River.
“I think everyone had good intentions, but there was clearly a disconnect between what local officials had in mind and what the state environmental authorities thought was acceptable,” Hamdan said, adding that Hawley was fined about $125,000 and the town and contractor were required “to undertake a ‘restoration’ of the river to undo much of the project.”
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.