Berlin, Vermont - October 31, 2011
The Weston Mobile Home park in Berlin was heavily damaged by flooding from Irene and many of the ruined trailers were taken away Monday.
Seventy-seven Weston Street is just one of the homes being demolished at the Weston's Mobile Home park in Berlin. "There is an emotional piece to this and unless you're actually standing in the middle of it trying to see it then you don't get it," said Richard Wobby with Associated General Contractors.
The neighborhood was once home to roughly 100 trailers. Tropical Storm Irene destroyed 70 of the homes. Monday construction crews with backhoes began knocking down and carting off the washed out rooms, rotted walls and roofs to 20 of the structures still sitting on the lot.
"If you are going to take a moment and walk away and breathe, that's fine but you're taking somebody's house, life, whatever and you're crinkling it up and you're putting it in a 20 by 10 foot box and sending it off," Wobby said.
Tearing down the homes costs about 15-hundred dollars a piece. Much of this work is being completed by volunteers. Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott says the push is on to help people rebuild by winter. "I think it is for those folks that are living with friends and relatives, that's not going to cut it for them throughout the winter, they need to get into their own homes and this will help in that regard," he said.
Lt. Gov. Scott says nearly 170 mobile homes are in similar shape across Vermont.
From Berlin, he has his eye on helping homeowners clear their lots in Duxbury and Woodstock to make it easier to move in new trailers. "Our hope is to move from this site, move right on to another mobile home park somewhere else in the state, wherever they are ready," Lt. Gov. Scott said.
Irene relief funds are helping to pick up the tab to clean up this mess. The hope is that with donations individual owners won't have to pay the bill. Right now only about a third of the people who once lived here are slated to return -- new trailers are expected on site in the next two weeks.
"My hope for the homeowners is that we make it easier for them to be able to come back in and set up a new life and start the next chapter of their life," Richard Wobby said.
