Vermont businesses to flood

WESTON — Geof Brown can tell you all about this summer’s headline-saturating floods, which soaked his historic local home once owned by the founders of his longtime workplace, the Vermont Country Store.

Instead, Brown — “chief storekeeper emeritus” of this small town’s biggest economic engine — would rather talk business.

“This is August, when the parking lot should be packed,” he said one recent sunny yet unusually sleepy day. “There should be cars pouring in and a line of people out the door. Where are they?”

The answer: staying home, according to Vermonters in the tourism industry who are finding travelers still spooked by last month’s storm news.

“Those initial images sat in people’s minds, and they canceled their vacations and moved on elsewhere,” Brown said. “We have to draw them back.”

More than 5 million people visit Vermont each summer — a figure that tops even its flurry of winter travelers, according to state statistics — helping employ 10% of the workforce and generating $3 billion in annual revenue.

The Vermont Country Store reports its traffic plummeted 50% the week that rain started to pummel Weston on July 9, prompting major flooding in the following days.

A month later, traffic remains off an estimated 10% to 15%.

“Some of our customers are saying they thought we were shut down or didn’t think they could get here,” said Sheena Smith, the store’s retail director and a board member of the Okemo Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The family-owned Vermont Country Store — which operates retail locations in Weston and Rockingham, and through catalogs and online — has emailed nearly a quarter-million of its customers with a simple message: “We are OPEN.”

“The first week, when my house was filled with mud, I had people saying ‘How can I help you?’” Brown said. “At this point, the best way is to support the businesses that are here.”

That sentiment is echoed statewide.

“Our message is, ‘Everything people love about Vermont — our small-town independent shops and restaurants — is still here and needs your support now more than ever,’” said Heather Pelham, commissioner of the Department of Tourism and Marketing. “Visitors can be a real key to our recovery.”

The state is tapping social media to communicate progress. The Vermont Tourism Facebook page, which noted temporary closures immediately after the storm, has moved on to report “communities are actively rebounding from the flood and, at the same time, there are many beautiful parts of Vermont that did not suffer any damage.”

The state website vermontvacation.com has added an “All Paths Offer a Way Forward” page with links to the status of local attractions — including those in the hard-hit capital and Okemo Valley regions — as well as ways to help with recovery efforts.

Although most national media outlets reported on the floods, The Boston Globe is one of the few to chronicle the reopening of such tourist draws as the Ben & Jerry’s factory tour in Waterbury and King Arthur Baking Co. café, bakery and store in Norwich.

“I think a lot of people think the entire state has been devastated by it, which is not the case,” Bob Schwartz of Stowe’s Trapp Family Lodge told The Globe. “We’re getting a lot of calls from folks coming in from New York and Boston, asking if the lodge sustained any damage, and luckily we did not take a big hit.”

Added Sheri Baraw Smith, chair of the Vermont Lodging Association, “Vermont is a strong state and we take care of one another. But we do rely on the folks that come and visit for the success of the state in the long term.”

In Weston, population 623, the most visible reminders of the storm are signs telling Weston Theater Company patrons that the big summer musical — fatefully, “Singin’ in the Rain” — has moved from the drying 300-seat playhouse to a nearby 120-seat second stage untouched by the flood.

“Everyone here knows we recovered faster and quicker from a road perspective,” Brown said. “That’s the message that has to go out: The state is open.”

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VTDigger's Brattleboro reporter. More by Kevin O'Connor