All eyes were on the Atlantic shoreline the morning of Aug. 28 as Hurricane Irene, downgraded to a tropical storm, slowly made her treacherous way north. We would soon find out that this broad-shouldered storm had a far greater affinity for New England’s mountains than for its sea. Irene wreaked havoc as she followed the spine of peaks from the Berkshires into Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Southern Vermont took the brunt of the hit, not necessarily from the wind as much as from the deluge of rain that caused rivers to overflow, washing away bridges and resulting in more than 200 sections of collapsed road.
Region’s ski resorts rise to meet challenges left by Irene
Tropical Storm Irene badly damaged Killingtons Superstar Pub, which is… (Killington Resort )
New England ski areas were not immune to the devastation. Killington’s Superstar Pub was knocked from its foundation by surging Roaring Brook. Mount Snow was virtually an island surrounded by floodwaters, with road closures limiting accessibility. All along the spine of the Green Mountains, from Ludlow, home to Okemo, to Waitsfield, the site of Sugarbush, Route 100 was so torn up it looked as if it had been bombed.
Ski areas outside of Vermont were not spared Irene’s wrath. The storm dropped over 10 inches of rain on Lincoln, N.H., causing the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River to flood and the main bridge from the Kancamagus Highway to Loon Mountain Resort to crumble. Other bridges came tumbling down on the extensive cross-country trail network at Jackson Ski Touring and along the access road to Sugarloaf in Carrabassett Valley, Maine. In the Berkshires, work at Jiminy Peak cost upward of $30,000 to renovate damaged slopes.
Spurred on by a strong sense of community and the financial need to keep the important fall foliage season afloat, the response to the devastation was almost instantaneous. Ski resorts did their part to chip in and help clean up.
“We had about 40 men and women from the Army National Guard staying with us for a month,’’ says Dave Meeker at the Mount Snow Resort, adding that “they were nothing short of incredible. They brought many pieces of heavy equipment and worked tirelessly to help rebuild our roads, fix culverts, whatever was needed. Mount Snow employees joined the volunteer force to help muck out people’s basements, clean up debris, and do anything else we could do to help.’’
Over at Okemo, Irene took a personal turn when folks discovered that an associate who occupied a real estate office in the base lodge had drowned in the storm and Brian Halligan, director of group sales, had lost his home to flooding on the White River. The resort decided that the last concert of its summer music festival would be used as a fund-raiser. More than $10,000 was raised for Black River Good Neighbor Services, a local charity that helps provide food, fuel, and other services to those in need.
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