(UPDATE: Looks like the Times Argus did do a piece on this Wednesday that I missed, so somebody actually did notice. That’s good.)
(UPDATE 2: As per the comments, this picture is apparently Johnson Swift Water Rescue in action, rather than Norwich cadets – but students did participate in water evacuations.)
There are plenty of stories of devastation in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene in the media. Entire towns that found themselves cut off from the outside world also make for compelling coverage. What has been missing from the unprecedented amount of Vermont media focus have been the tales of heroism, which surprises me. People have a need to see the best of themselves in times like this, and the media usually fall over themselves in efforts to serve those stories up in often the most syrupy ways.
But not this week, even though there is a refreshing one right down the road from Montpelier. Northfield businesses were hit hard in the flooding, as Bob Kinzel reported on VPR two days back, but nobody’s noticed how Northfield’s Norwich University – the nation’s oldest private military college – mobilized to help the community (and used Facebook to make it happen). Here’s from a bigger piece I did for The Bridge, my new legacy media gig (I don’t think the latest issue is online yet):
At about 3 p.m. on Sunday, members of Norwich University’s Mountain Cold Weather Rescue Company received a call for help from the Northfield Police for assistance in the town. 37 cadets worked through the night evacuating 25 Northfield residents threatened by the rising waters, remaining on call until 6 a.m. Monday morning.
… After the Mountain Cold Weather Rescue Company assistance, Norwich University’s Center for Civic Engagement began coordinating efforts directly with town officials. Blankets were provided, and evacuees were transported to shelters at the Northfield High School and the Barre Auditorium, and returned to their homes the next day.
All told, 150 students will have participated in relief efforts by the time operations wind down.
Campus support has been coordinated largely over Facebook, and has been an indispensable element of a Town-University partnership characterized as “a community-wide effort with a strong base of university support from students, staff and alums,” according to Center for Civic Engagement Director Nicole DiDomenico. It’s an experience that is having no small impact on students.
“The students could tell that many of the families were emotionally overwhelmed, many of them breaking down in tears,” DiDomenico said of students working in water-damaged residences on Tuesday after the storm. Although shaken, student volunteers were recruiting their friends and “coming back even more determined to help throughout the week.”
The Norwich volunteers plan to provide assistance to impacted neighboring towns as well, such as Waterbury and Roxbury.
“but nobody’s noticed how Northfield’s Norwich University”
i’ve seen articles in the Times Argus and Northfield News about cadets helping out, even with some historical perspective about how they helped during 1927 too.
Here is what Deborah Pickman Clifford and Nicholas Clifford wrote in their book about the 1927 flood “The Troubled Roar of the Waters”:
“Thirty five miles away, the Dog River rose fifteen feet above normal, flooding much of the town of Northfield …. There, the Norwich University cadets went into action, some putting out in canoes in the pitch dark to rescue people from flooded houses, others helping to stem the river’s flow of sand and gravel, still others patrolling the streets. Thanks to their actions, though property damage was considerable, no lives were lost, and as early as Friday some of the students made their way on horseback into Barre and Montpelier.”
Yet, the Norwich cadets were not alone. The Cliffords also later noted, “Perhaps no group responded to the calls for help as enthusiastically as did the college students…. Scores of young men from the University of Vermont, Middlebury College and Dartmouth eagerly volunteered to work in other devastated towns.”
I would highly recommend the Cliffords’ book. It is a well-written history and a very thoughtful reflection not just on the Vermont of 1927 but also the Vermont we know today. You can get it at the Vermont Historical Society’s online bookstore. Give the VHS your business, not Amazon.
The photo attached to this article shows the Johnson Water Rescue Team preparing to evacuate residents standed on the corner of Water and Union Streets in Northfield.
While the cadets did show up ready to go they were not, to my knowlege, involved in the high risk deluge crossing evacuation process.
This post is in no way intended to diminish the efforts of the Norwich Cadets during the tumult and certainly after but rather to sing the deserved praises for the heroic team from Johnson. It was truly a sight to behold.
As a Northfield resident, I am enormously greatful to both groups and proud of the community as a whole. We have mustered in response to the challenge and the force of our collective action is greater than any river can undermine.