A Mighty Storm: Stories of Resilience After Irene
by Yvonne Daley
Tropical Storm Irene roared into Vermont in the early morning hours of Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011 while many were still asleep. By morning, it was pouring up to 10 inches of rain onto the spine of the tiny state’s Green Mountains. Twelve hours later Irene was gone, but in many towns the destruction was nearly total - and many small communities were completely cut off from the outside world. What happened next was not what you might think. Not only did the people in these tiny outposts and isolated communities work together to rescue the stranded and begin rebuilding roads, salvaging what they could from debris, but they rediscovered collective bonds of strength and resiliency that lie within all of us.
From Wilmington to Waterbury, the Deerfield River to Lake Champlain, the storm transformed Vermont. And in the following months, Vermonters themselves.
All proceeds from A Mighty Storm will be distributed among three charities:
The VT Irene Flood Relief Fund, providing grants to small businesses statewide affected by the flooding in partnership with the Central Vermont Community Action Council -The Mobile Home Project Fund, a relief fund benefiting many of Vermont's most vulnerable residents with picking up and rebuilding after floodwaters wreaked havoc in mobile home parks across the state. -The Rutland Relief Fund, which benefits Rutland-area residents who were hurt by flooding.
They Might Be Gypsies is the remarkable father-son duo from Rochester who play Latin-tinged guitar jazz, much of it composed either dad Greg, or 15 year-old Aidan. 
Rick Bessette is a native of Shelburne, VT, who grew up living and working on Shelburne Farms, the former estate of Willam Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb. Inspired by the natural beauty of the land and the almost utopic agricultural life the property was built for, Bessette turned to poetry to express his awe. 
The epistolary poems in Karin Gottshall’s Flood Letters defy
all expectations. In her hands, the familiar Biblical story of the Flood
is radically transformed, addressed by the intimate, unflinching voice
of one who has mastered the poetics of disaster.
