In the early hours of July 11, the rain-swollen Lamoille River rose up out of its banks and tore through the heart of downtown Johnson. Parts of the small Vermont town lay in ruins. Johnson’s wastewater treatment plant was destroyed, and the downtown supermarket, the town offices and fire department, surrounding farms, the Johnson health center, and dozens of manufactured homes all sustained heavy damage.

How do you recover? Johnson may have a homegrown answer as it recovers from twin disasters: the opioid crisis and a flood fueled by the climate crisis.

Jenna’s Promise is a recovery community in Johnson that helps women with substance use disorder. It is named for 26-year-old Jenna Tatro, who died in February 2019 following a drug overdose at her family’s Johnson home. Her grieving parents, Greg and Dawn Tatro, founded Jenna’s Promise as a place they wish had existed for their daughter — a community-based center for women in recovery.

In just a few years, Jenna’s Promise has expanded into a number of formerly vacant buildings in Johnson and now includes recovery housing, a workforce development program, a popular downtown café, a coffee roastery, and a surplus goods and appliances store. The flood damaged one of Jenna’s Promise recovery housing locations and filled the basement of Jenna’s Coffee House, but the café is up and running again.

Are the lessons of recovery transferable from one crisis to another? 

Greg Tatro believes so. 

“You gotta have hope and keep moving ahead, even if it's small steps every day,” said Greg Tatro, the owner of the 67-year-old family business, G.W. Tatro Construction.