Vermont Uses Disaster Clean Up to Create Jobs

Vermont is turning the lemons of a natural disaster into the lemonade of jobs for unemployed people. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, Rep. Peter Welch and Gov. Peter Shumlin announced on June 30 a $1.2 million National Emergency Grant (NEG) from the U.S. Department of Labor to create jobs for displaced workers and long-term unemployed Vermonters for the cleanup after the April floods.

“These jobs are timely, this help is practical, and it is on target for Vermont’s needs right now in the flooding aftermath. This federal assistance will help put struggling Vermonters back to work while at the same time helping the state recover from this disaster,” they said in a joint press statement.

“The grant, awarded to the Vermont Department of Labor will create approximately 75 temporary jobs for eligible dislocated workers. … The cleanup and recovery efforts include seven counties … declared by FEMA as official disaster areas,” said Commissioner Annie Noonan from the Department of Labor in a phone interview.

“Eligible candidates are those that are dislocated and long-term unemployed Vermonters, those that are impacted by the flooding and those in the disaster areas. Eligibility for those that are considered unemployed long term will be determined based on a three-to-six-month period to be announced. The current unemployment rate in Vermont is 5.4 percent. Those that qualify will go through regional offices for displacement,” said Noonan.

“The flooding has resulted in some temporary and permanent job losses in Vermont,” Noonan said. “We urge Vermonters who have experienced job loss relating to the flooding to explore their eligibility for this benefit. The parameters for eligibility address many factors, including, but not limited to damage or destruction of a workplace, a personal injury, or transportation problems relating to the disaster, or business downturn because of the disaster. It’s important to explore your eligibility and file before the July 25, 2011, deadline to take advantage of this benefit.”

On May 27, a congressional delegation letter was sent to President Obama supporting Shumlin’s request for assistance in the wake of severe flooding in Vermont. According to the Vermont Emergency Management Agency the floods caused more than $6 million worth of damage to public infrastructure.

Vermont was “completely saturated to an unprecedented magnitude. The timely delivery of much-needed resources from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is absolutely critical to help Vermonters, working together, to respond to this disaster,” said the letter to the president from Leahy, Sanders and Welch.

Over the July 4 weekend, recovery specialists at the Disaster Recovery Centers continued their efforts to help Vermont residents and business owners with losses and damages from severe storms and flooding that started in early April of this year. The centers stayed open to provide uninterrupted assistance.