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- Currently — December 1st, 2022
Currently — December 1st, 2022
We are ramping up efforts to finish building Project Mushroom asap — a safe platform to promote connection, mutual aid, and transformative action at a critical moment in history. We need your help.
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Tropical Storm Irene caused widespread devastation when it roared into Vermont in the summer of 2011. And few communities fared worse than the remote mountain town of Rochester.
Tucked between the two main ranges of the Green Mountains, Rochester was cut off in every direction for days after flood waters destroyed access roads and other infrastructure. The town’s 1,000-or-so residents, stuck on what had essentially become an island, had no power, internet or phone service.
“People had to queue up in front of the grocery store and be escorted in with flashlights,” recalled Jeffrey Gephart, the town’s energy coordinator. “And somebody had to round up a pump and generator, cordon off the gas station and pump people their 5- or 10-gallon allotment.”
Such extremes promise to get worse in the face of climate change, especially for a town that, because of its valley location, is especially prone to “significant weather,” Gephart said. With that in mind, the local utility, Green Mountain Power, is building a microgrid that will power the central village during outages.
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