When flood waters tore through parts of Vermont last July, countless lives were upended. Barre, the Granite City, was especially hard hit. Parts of downtown were buried in thick mud, and the city public works department spent days sending snowplows through the streets to clear them.

This week, virtually everyone I talked with in Barre expressed anxiety about heavy rains and potential flash flooding expected on Wednesday and Thursday. 

I stopped by Dente’s Market, Barre’s last corner grocery. The store dates back to 1907. Last year when I visited, the sodden contents of the store were heaped on the sidewalk. I found its owner, Rick Dente, standing on the porch of a house that he owns just behind the market. Locals affectionately call him the Mayor of North Barre. 

When I met Dente last year, he told me of his harrowing near-death experience during the flood. He was in water up to his neck, pinned to a door in the back of his market, his legs about to give out. Just when Dente thought it was over, three tenants who lived above his store came down, ropes around their waists. They banged open the door and rescued the exhausted shopkeeper.

“Someone was watching over me,” Dente told me last year inside his mud filled market. 

Today, collectible glass milk containers and old Coke bottles once again sparkled on the shelves, and coolers offered an assortment of food and drink. Rick Dente was behind the counter in his usual post where he has been greeting his Barre neighbors for decades.

Dente said that he has had health impacts related to the 2023 flood. “I've had some physical issues that I'm told can be the result of your body experiencing some serious, serious stress.”

“Hopefully I can stay in good health and keep going for at least a few more years,” he said of his 117 year old family business. “Time will tell.”

When I visited Vermont Bicycle Shop, I discovered that it had moved from its location on Main Street. The new store opened this week a few blocks away at a location that did not flood.

“I always describe last year as both the best and worst thing that's ever happened to me,” said bike store owner Darren Ohl, whose basement stocked with over $100,000 in inventory was under 8 feet of water last year. Community members created a GoFundMe for the bike shop that raised over $26,000.

“The flood was terrible to go through," said Ohl. But it "was wonderful was seeing how much our community came out. We had over 25 volunteers with over 20 volunteers for almost 30 days straight. So many people would just come to the shop and just write us a check and donate money. That was astounding to experience as a business owner. And without that we would have folded. We would have gone out of business.”

“That community response is one of the things that holds neighborhoods and communities together,” said Pam Wilson, a founder of Barre Up, a group working on long term recovery. “That's how you survive an unpredictable climate future. It's based in community care.”