FROM RECOVERY TO RESILIENCE
Mitigation Strategy People move to Damascus because of the proximity to seven nationally known trails, said Michael Wright, owner of Adventure Damascus Bicycles (adventuredamascus.com). “It is Trail, there were 138 sites along the 93-mile path that were damaged by the 2023 floods. Documenting that included not only photos and reports of the damaged areas, but also documentation of whom the loss of trail access is impacting, affirmed Cassino. tion], have a system for emergency response when you have to go out and do damage assessments,” she said. “The way things are assessed is very critical for when FEMA eventually comes to town.” On the Lamoille Valley Rail projects done in that window, and to not request an extension, and that’s what we’ve been advised to do from our partners at the federal level and our state emergency management partners.” The process can also be lengthy, and so having systems in place in advance of a disaster re- sponse goes a long way. “Whether you are a volunteer network or part of a [department of transporta -
the identity of the community,” he affirmed. While his shop survived relatively unscathed in the recent catastrophic flooding, his business is slowly recovering. “I didn’t lose anything except, you know, 50 employees and 27 years of an industry I helped create,” he said. Trails can be “particularly vulnerable to climate impacts,” ac- cording to a 2023 U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration report titled “Trails as Resilient Infrastructure,” because many are located “within riparian and coastal corridors, forests, or on slopes, making them prone to flooding, fire, erosion, and landslides.” What made the Creeper a downhill joyride from Whitetop to Damascus contributed to its widespread damage. “When you have a huge amount of rain on top of a mountain, it’s gravity,” Quigley said. “It just took the top couple trestles, which then took the next trestles, which then took the next … until it got down to Damascus.” Much of the Creeper’s de- struction took place on the trail segment that runs on U.S. Forest Service land, and $660 million in bipartisan disaster funding allocated for the Creeper’s rebuild
factors in resilience. “It is not just to rebuild the trestles and rebuild the trail,” said Quigley. “It’s also for fire mitigation, because we’ve got millions of trees down, which will be a tinderbox in another six to 12 months. It’s also for stream restoration, improving the health of the waterways that are adjacent to or flow under the trail. It’s a variety of things.” Wright is adapting his business in the meantime. He’s begun running shuttle service to Abingdon, the Creeper’s western terminus, so that cyclists can ride the 17-mile segment that largely survived Helene. Intertwined Cari Cullen, program officer for domestic funds with the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP, disasterphilanthropy.org), has a direct view from her home next to Lindenwood Park in Fargo, North Dakota, of how trail infrastructure can serve a mitigating role during severe weather. On both the North Dakota and Minnesota sides of the flood-prone Red River, trails run alongside it. “I watch it almost every spring become a place where the water rises,” she said. “And we’re glad that there’s space for
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