Duryea knows from a yearslong rebuilding experience that early, quick action following Assessing the Damages Conservancy, is who received it. She said messages like Duryea’s made her and her team feel less alone in the aftermath of the cataclysmic floods. “The big thing for me was the fact that people were reach- ing out on their own to us and saying: ‘Hey, been there, done that. Not a lot of fun, but you’ll be okay,’” Quigley said. Management Agency (FEMA) disaster-relief process through the prism of trail repair. Lisa Quigley, executive director of the Virginia Creeper Trail
In the process of surveying the Cowboy Trail damage, Duryea also saw how the trail was aiding com- munities in the immediate aftermath of the flooding. Culverts along the Cowboy Trail corridor helped drain water for some of the adjacent rural communities, though there was ultimately “nowhere for the water to go” during the severe flooding. With many roads out, segments served as passageways for emergency personnel. Some ranchers even led cattle to the trail, the highest ground they could find amid the floodwaters. “That’s one of the points of rail- banking, preserving these corridors in case they are useful for natural disasters, defense or emergency,” Duryea said. There is uncertainty about how federal disaster relief will be affect- ed, given that the current presiden- tial administration called for the federal agency to be disbanded. Most of the FEMA funding Jackie Cassino sought to repair flood- damaged portions of Vermont’s Lamoille Valley Rail Trail has been accounted for. Cassino, Vermont’s rail trails program manager, said her path forward for remaining projects tied to federal disaster relief, like rebuilding and expanding a bridge in Hardwick, is to get them done ASAP. “You have 18 months with FEMA from the date of the declared disaster to project completion, said Cassino. “Our goal is to get the 2024 event
“Yes, we got knocked down … but we’re rising up, and we’re going to continue all this momentum with a greater focus on resilience.”
— Brad Spiegel, Community Planner, Equinox
an event is key. In March of 2019, snow and rainfall
following a prolonged period of severe cold weather across northern Nebraska sent thick river ice hurtling down rivers, compromising dams and bridges and devastating communities. Segments of a roughly 75-mile stretch of the Cowboy Trail (rtc.li/ngpc-cowboy-trail) between O’Neill and Norfolk, where it parallels the Elkhorn River, were especially hard hit during the first of several floods in the region. When your community experiences a natural disaster, your first response is to focus on the residents—“life, limb, safe- ty”—Duryea said. But, he adds, you also have to get out quickly and assess your trail damages. “If you are going to be eligible for public assistance, get out there … as soon as you can. Start gathering maintenance records. Start gathering pictures and photos of the trail, even if they had nothing to do with a maintenance record.”
Established in 1983 by the National Trails System Act, railbanking is a voluntary agreement that enables a rail corridor to be preserved for interim use as a trail. To date, the statute has helped make some 196 rail-trails possible. Learn more: railstotrails.org/ railbanking.
PHOTOS: This page: In Swannanoa, North Carolina, Owen Park, a future trailhead of the Fonta Flora State Trail, was decimated by Hurricane Helene in 2024. | Courtesy Equinox. Opposite page: Counterclockwise, from top: The Virginia Creeper Trail in Damascus before Hurricane Helene | Photo by Eli Christman; damage along the Creeper following the 2024 storm | Eric Oberg; the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail in Vermont | Courtesy LVRT.org.
Rails to Trails MAGAZINE | SPRING/SUMMER 2025
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