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Nearly Two Years After Irene, Rochester Family Ready To Move On

VPR/Melody Bodette

Later this summer, Vermont will mark two years since Tropical Storm Irene swept through and left 7 people dead in its wake, while also wiping out roads, bridges, state offices, and homes.

Jon Graham and Beth Frock, and their two teenage daughters lost their Rochester home on that Sunday in August 2011, when a normally small brook swelled, undermining the foundation of their house, knocking the house to the ground.

Jon was inside the house that day, but survived, uninjured. In the months after the storm, the family entered into FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation buyout program.

And last week, the family finally got a measure of closure, at a law office in Woodstock.

Jon and Beth sat at a table with Rochester selectman Larry Straus and attorney Susan Ford to make the buyout official.

The closing was a simple ten minutes spent signing legal documents.

The Graham-Frocks signed the paper work that completed the sale of what was left of their house and land to the town.

The money for the purchase came from the Hazard Mitigation Program and from the HUD program, administered through the state. In agreeing to the sale, the town had to agree to deed restrictions that prevent any development of the site, though there are a handful of allowable uses, like a park or picnic area.

Larry Straus explained that the land where the Graham-Frocks house once stood will remain open.

“The town has agreed to take title to the property and to keep it undeveloped in perpetuity subject to the deed restrictions to permanently remove it from development and maintain the flood plain,” he said. The town has no plans for the site.

First the town has to take care of any remaining clean-up and do an environmental assessment. But there’s not much to assess. Beth says only the basement of the house remains.

And finally, it was over. Susan Ford slid the check across the table to Jon and Beth.

“There’s your check,” she said.  

It’s been 22 months to the day, since Irene took the home where the family lived for 16 years. What’s left is a piece of paper that Jon puts in his pocket.

The total is $35,408.

The house was assessed for $165,000. And most of the HUD and FEMA money went to pay off the mortgage on the home, with checks Jon and Beth wrote every month, even after the house was destroyed.

“We’ll probably use it to buy the house we’re in now, as a down payment. It was my mother’s house,” Jon said.

Jon inherited the house from his mother, who died before Irene. He shares ownership with three siblings, and he’ll need to buy them out.

Beyond that there’s still work to be done to improve the property.  

“It’s an old house and there probably hasn’t been anything done to it for ten years,” Beth said.

But there’s still a lot of resentment toward the bank that held the mortgage on the destroyed home. In earlier negotiations they had been under the impression the bank would split the FEMA money, and forgive part of what was left on the loan. But in the end, the bank took the full amount required to close out the mortgage.

“They said this is enough money for you to make a down payment on the house so why should we consider doing it?” Beth said.

Still Beth said that coming out of the deal with money is a good thing.

“We’re not looking a gift horse in the mouth, but the problem with the bank was more how hostile and rude they almost had swat team like tactics from the very beginning from the moment we asked to postpone a mortgage payment because the house was in the river,” Jon explained.

The house where they live now is just down the block from their former home, and they do go by the spot frequently.

“We went there last night just sort of as a closing moment. But time fills up with other things and other events that matter tend to soften the edges, you know hitting the turn signal when I turn into town like I always did, that took nine months to stop. But, there will always be a special association with that spot,” Jon said.

Now, the Graham-Frocks are turning a page. Their youngest daughter Chloe is still in school. Daughter Rhianna finished a year of community college and is starting at Champlain College in the fall. Jon is still working for a publishing company. And Beth just received a grant to focus on sales and marketing her clothing store, Boysenberry, and is also working part-time at a Cafe.

As for the closing, there will be no celebration.

“We don’t have like a big party or anything planned. In part because we don’t want to jinx it!” Jon said.

“Jon wanted to buy a new mailbox yesterday, and I said, no you can’t buy a new mailbox until after we sign those papers,” Beth laughs.

It’s still marks the end of a long period of uncertainty for the family.

“Almost two years. I think there’s going to be for us this huge weight lifted and also where we feel like we can look into the future again and there’s been a sense that we haven’t been able to do this until this was settled,” Beth said.  

“It will probably take a few weeks to just say yes its real and look to the future,” Jon said.  

You can find all of our interviews with the Graham-Frock family here.

Melody is the Contributing Editor for But Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids and the co-author of two But Why books with Jane Lindholm.
A graduate of NYU with a Master's Degree in journalism, Mitch has more than 20 years experience in radio news. He got his start as news director at NYU's college station, and moved on to a news director (and part-time DJ position) for commercial radio station WMVY on Martha's Vineyard. But public radio was where Mitch wanted to be and he eventually moved on to Boston where he worked for six years in a number of different capacities at member station WBUR...as a Senior Producer, Editor, and fill-in co-host of the nationally distributed Here and Now. Mitch has been a guest host of the national NPR sports program "Only A Game". He's also worked as an editor and producer for international news coverage with Monitor Radio in Boston.
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