PEACHAM, Vt. — The last thing John and Jenny Mackenzie saw as they fled their Vermont home with their daughters, dog and two guinea pigs last summer was their cars upended and propelled away by rushing flood waters.
Minutes earlier they had abandoned their 19th-century wood-frame house as the remnants of Hurricane Beryl turned it into an island engulfed by surging flood waters, with trees slamming into it and water gushing at colossal speed into the basement and first floor.
“It was just like it was a horror movie at that point,” John Mackenzie said of the surreal scene on that July 10 night.
“We lost both of our vehicles, our home and our barn and at least half of our possessions,” Jenny Mackenzie said.
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Since that terrifying storm when two people died swept away in vehicles, the Mackenzies, both teachers, and their twin daughters have been living temporarily in a friend’s house. They have scrambled to figure out something permanent, a daunting task in a state with a housing shortage and when government programs to buy out flood-destroyed homes can take a year or more and are not guaranteed.
But four months after the devastating loss, the family is writing a new chapter.
Donations from friends, family and others in their community have helped the Mackenzies find a new house in time for Thanksgiving, giving them hope amid ongoing challenges. The Associated Press is following them through their recovery.
Lila, left, John and Jenny Mackenzie pose for a photo in their flood-damaged house in Peacham, Vt. on Sept. 23, 2024. Credit: AP/Dmitri Beliakov
Community rallies to help flood-stricken family
The Mackenzies quickly learned how much support they had.
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Two days after the storm, dozens of volunteers showed up to help salvage what they could. Floodwaters had reduced the lawn to a muddy chasm; their septic system was destroyed.
In the rain, volunteers carried furniture and other belongings across a gulch to waiting all-terrain vehicles, which drove them on dirt roads to the village where the family is staying.
Friends set up an online fundraising page that has raised over $160,000. Over 950 donations have come in, some from former students, ranging from $5 to $10,000.
The kitchen in the flood-damaged home of John and Jenny Mackenzie is shown on Sept. 23, 2024 in Peacham, Vt. Credit: AP/Dmitri Beliakov
“It’s unbelievable the way that we were supported and we’ve been trying to find ways to communicate that gratitude,” said John Mackenzie, 49.
The donations allowed them to buy used vehicles, keep teaching and carry on with life, his 50-year-old wife said. As much as the money, it means a lot that people were thinking about them, she said.
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“It doesn’t make them whole, all of the damage that they experienced, but yes that’s an amazing amount and I think it speaks to the community that’s around them and how well loved they are,” said Cara Robechek, who helped start the fundraising effort.
“They’re both teachers. They are sort of deeply embedded in a lot of communities.”
An uncertain future
The Mackenzies owned their two-story house, built in 1840 with clapboard siding painted sage green, for 21 years. They raised their 16-year-old daughters, Lila and Kate, there.
“We’re already aware that for us losing the home after 21 years is huge but this is the only home they ever knew,” John Mackenzie said of their girls. “We want to recreate a new home.”
The Mackenzies applied for a buyout and wanted to stay in Peacham, but housing costs in the town of 700 have soared and are out of reach, they said.
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As of this fall, about 250 households have applied for buyouts, most both federally and state funded, from the severe flooding in early July and later that month that hit parts of central and northern Vermont, according to the state.
Once a buyout application is complete, it can sit in review with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for up to a year, said Stephanie Smith, the state hazard mitigation officer with Vermont Emergency Management.
The Mackenzies got another setback last week when they learned their property may not be eligible for a FEMA buyout, although Smith said Monday the state is working to make it eligible. The Mackenzies have to provide more detailed information, including receipts from repair work done after a previous flood. But they lost much of that paperwork in this summer’s storm, Jenny Mackenzie said.
If FEMA funding falls through, Smith said the state will review the Mackenzies’ case for a state buyout program early next year.
“The reality is that we won’t be able to afford to stay in this house that we’ve bought unless that buyout goes through,” Jenny Mackenzie said.
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Climate change fuels stronger storms
The flooding came exactly a year after catastrophic floods hit areas of rural, mountainous Vermont, including the capital, Montpelier. Some northern communities were pummeled twice by the severe flash flooding this July.
Experts say Vermont could see more frequent catastrophic events like these, with climate change fueling stronger storms and striking Vermont villages situated along the Green Mountains’ rivers and streams.
Donations help family buy a new home
Unable to find an affordable house in Peacham, the Mackenzies made the difficult decision to look elsewhere. In late September, they put down an offer on a house in Craftsbury, about 30 miles away. The commute to St. Johnsbury Academy where they both teach English and their daughters go to school is about 50 minutes compared to the 20 minutes they used to drive. They plan to move in mid-winter.
The white clapboard farmhouse with a red door — also built in 1840 — reminds them of their Peacham home.
After the sale closed, Jenny Mackenzie bought a trowel — “I didn’t have one anymore,” she said — and planted about 100 daffodils that a friend rescued from the family’s flooded house. Another friend gave her more. Jenny Mackenzie usually plants 500 a year.
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“It felt good to get in a few because that will really make us feel like home,” she said as their German shorthaired pointer, Hester, ran around her new grounds.
A friend is reupholstering their flood-damaged rocking chairs and couch. The family’s antique piano, built in 1895, could not be saved; it’s the only thing remaining at the old house.
The Mackenzies would not be where they are without the financial and other support of friends and family.
“There’s no way we could have done that prior to a buyout,” Jenny Mackenzie said of paying off the mortgage on the old house, as well as a government loan from previous flood damage, and then buying a new house. “Even now it’s financially precarious.”
The family has learned through this experience to open themselves up to everything — to suggestions about where they might relocate, to kindness, to community, John Mackenzie said.
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There were moments, initially, when it was hard to accept that kind of generosity and the loss of some privacy around money, he said. But it’s helped to know he would donate if there were another family in need, and he and his wife are incredibly grateful.
Vermont’s governor has signed legislation that will allow adults over the age of 21 to legally possess twice as much marijuana as they could previously, enable interstate cannabis commerce and make other changes to rules for licensed businesses.
Gov. Phil Scott (R) on Friday announced that he approved the large-scale cannabis regulatory reform bill, S. 278, which passed both chambers of the legislature last month.
One of the main impacts of the new law for consumers is that it doubles the prior legal possession limit to up to two ounces of marijuana or 10 grams of hashish.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D), also allows the governor to enter into compacts with other states for cross-border cannabis trade.
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The legislative text notes that there is a “shifting federal posture on regulated cannabis markets” and says it is “the intent of the General Assembly to prepare for the possibility of regional or interstate cannabis markets.”
A provision says that such agreements could only move forward if federal law is amended to allow for interstate transfer of cannabis, if a federal law is enacted that blocks use of agency funds to prevent such transfers, if the U.S. Department of Justice issues a memo allowing or tolerating such activity or if the state attorney general certifies that entering into interstate marijuana commerce agreements “will not result in significant legal risk to this State based on review of federal judicial decisions and administrative action.”
— Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.
Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access. —
The bill signed by the governor also creates a pilot program for cannabis events at which businesses could sell products but where cannabis consumption would not be allowed.
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The legislation additionally says that housing rental agreements cannot prohibit tenants from “possessing cannabis or cannabis products within the rental premises or using cannabis or cannabis products within a dwelling unit, except that a rental agreement may prohibit the use of lighted cannabis or cannabis products intended for inhalation within the rental premises.”
It also eliminates the vertically integrated license type and reduces licensing fees for cannabis cultivation businesses, among other technical changes to current statute.
Earlier versions of the bill would have altered potency restrictions for cannabis products, reduced taxes and allowed on-site consumption licenses and delivery services, but those provisions were removed during the legislative process prior to final passage.
In 2018, Scott signed a bill to legalize marijuana possession and home cultivation and then allowed subsequent legislation to legalize commercial cannabis sales to take effect without his signature in 2020.
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
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PAWLET — The Pawlett Historical Society and Rupert Historical Society will co-host a talk, “The Great Bennington Battle and Vermont,” with acclaimed historian Howard Coffin, at 1 p.m. on Sunday, July 5, at the Pawlet Town Hall, 122 School Street, Pawlet.
The surrender at Saratoga of a British army under John Burgoyne, now almost 250 years ago, has long been called the decisive battle of the American Revolution. But perhaps Burgoyne was doomed after the Battle of Bennington, a bloody day of fighting along the Vermont border that happened two months before Saratoga?
Coffin will discuss the history-changing Burgoyne campaign, focusing on the dramatic battle of Great Bennington—a Vermont battle as well as a New York one. He will also review heroes John Stark and Seth Warner and the Vermont Constitution, itself about to turn 250 years old.
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A seventh-generation Vermonter, Howard Coffin is the author of four books on the Civil War: “Something Abides: Discovering the Civil War in Today’s Vermont;” “Full Duty: Vermonters in the Civil War;” “Nine Months to Gettysburg; and The Battered Stars,” as well as “Guns Over the Champlain Valley,” a book on military sites along the Champlain Corridor.
This free event starts at 12 p.m. with a display of the first coinage minted in the United States, and works by noted photographers Neil Rappaport and John Pelton from our towns’ Bicentennial events in 1976. Be sure to mingle after Coffin’s presentation for an ice cream social with Stewart’s Ice Cream. This event is accessible to all, and made possible by the Vermont Humanities Speakers Bureau. For details on the event, contact Rose Smith at 802-645-0306 or roseksmith1925@gmail.com. For information on Vermont Humanities, visit vermonthumanities.org.
QUECHEE, Vt. (WCAX) – Crews worked across the White River Valley on Friday to restore power and clean up debris after two EF-1 tornadoes touched down in Vermont, including one that swept through Quechee.
Joe Haynes stared over his yard in Woodstock, with chunks of his roof scattered across it, wondering about the next steps.
Reporter Connor Ullathorne: How long will this all take to clean up?
Joe Haynes: Oh, I have no idea.
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He said he’s lucky he and his nearby neighbors are safe and are not blocked in.
“Some of the trees were down. They’ll be down for awhile but they can make their way out,” Haynes said.
Crews in Woodstock continued clearing trees and downed power lines along Route 4. That’s where Tiffany Miller was working inside the Mountain Creamery when the tornado passed right over the store. Nobody was injured, but their new walk-in storage ended up in the trees.
“It’s definitely a big setback for us. We were getting ready to have it wired up tomorrow. So I mean we definitely have a lot of elbow grease and hours to put in to get back up to where we were,” Miller said.
She said she was happy to see how many customers have checked in on them.
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“It’s nice to see that no matter what, in some bad case– storms or indifferent– that we can still come together and be there for each other,” Miller said.
Farther east in Quechee, workers hacked away at trees and swept away debris along the golf course and roads.
“It’s crazy they want to see. Everybody cares about their community and all their assets and amenities, so it’s nice to see everybody come together,” Quechee Club General Manager Brian Kelley said.
Kelley said they were out early Friday, and many residents were shocked at the damage. He’s still hopeful the area can come together and support each other.
“We normally do about 200 rounds a day going into one of our peak weekends. We’ve got the balloon festival this weekend, so we have that population in town, so a little bit of disappointment but people have been great and supportive, and we’ll be back at it tomorrow,” Kelley said.
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Kelley said it should be a few days until they are back to full force in Quechee.
Many others across the region told us they’re now focused on getting back to normal.
Click here for the latest forecast from the WCAX First Alert Weather Team.
