Across the state, communities try to prepare for more frequent and intense storms
By Susan Geier, Granite State News Collaborative
As storms increase in frequency and intensity, municipalities across New Hampshire often find themselves recovering and rebuilding from past disasters while coping with the costs and reality of planning for and trying to mitigate future ones.
“We know our precipitation events are becoming more intense,” said Mary Stampone, the state climatologist and an associate professor of geography at the University of New Hampshire. “We are getting overall wetter, but in bigger storm events.”
State Climatologist Mary Stampone said infrastructure upgrades ‘should be designed for our prospective future – 10 years, 30 years, or 50 years from now. And that depends on money, time, and resources.’ (UNH photo)
Waterville Valley in the White Mountains was one of the towns hard-hit by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, and more recently by a storm in December 2022, followed by storms in July and December 2023.
Town Administrator Mark DeCoteau and David Noyes, fire chief and emergency management director, said all-hazards planning in the small resort community takes teamwork to not only brainstorm possible disaster scenarios, but determine the steps to prepare for, respond to and recover from what may happen.
“The resort is the economic hub of the town and a large stakeholder, plus we are surrounded by national forest, and they are a big stakeholder as well,” said DeCoteau. “We are virtually an island in the middle of the forest.”
Towns and cities get support and technical assistance from the state government and can get aid from federal agencies, but the localities are ultimately the ones responsible for disaster planning and mitigation.
“Dave and I have gone through that probably three or four times, and we’ve found what always rises to the top is ingress and egress — there is only one road into town,” DeCoteau said. “State Route 49 is a major issue — we need a second route of egress.”
Noyes added, “We were 12 feet away from being cut off during Irene.”
DeCoteau said the state spent $1 million repairing Route 49, and the town spent $300,000 repairing a pedestrian bridge.
Thirteen years later, access is still the town’s top priority, but it’s complicated because the town is in the White Mountains National Forest.
“We are working with the federal government to convince them to give up (access to) land and figure out how to pay for it,” DeCoteau said, adding that there are secondary access roads, but their surface is dirt, which means they are not a viable option.
In the meantime, the town is making repairs while awaiting reimbursement from a December 2023 storm, which cost the town more than $160,000.
“As far as the town budget, we have a small capital reserve account to use for emergency repairs for infrastructure like roads, sewer and water,” DeCoteau said. “We probably carry about $50,000 to $75,000 a year.”
“You cannot budget for everything,” he added. “It’s why I appreciate the town funding those capital reserve accounts — we are fortunate in Waterville Valley. It’s not always the case in other communities.”
‘All disasters start local and end local’
The state’s own hazard mitigation plan noted it needed to focus its attention on natural hazards, and that is reflected in the plan’s 2023 update. Severe winter weather, inland and coastal flooding, high wind events, and aging infrastructure were noted as key hazards.
According to the plan:
The average annual temperature has increased about 3 degrees in the state since the early 20th century. Warming has been greater in winter than any other season.
Precipitation has increased during the last century, with the highest numbers of extreme precipitation events occurring over the last decade. Mean precipitation and precipitation extremes are projected to increase in the future, with associated increases in flooding.
Rising sea levels pose significant risks to coastal communities and structures, due to inundation, land loss due to erosion, and greater flood vulnerability due to higher storm surge.
“What we have now in terms of infrastructure is different than what we had five years ago,” Stampone said. “Any upgrades should be designed for our prospective future — 10 years, 30 years or 50 years from now. And that depends on money, time and resources.”
The response to climate change, she said, has been a lot of Band-Aid solutions — not planning and mitigation for what’s next.
“All disasters start local and end local,” said Vanessa Palange, communication coordinator with the state’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.
She and Austin Brown, the department’s chief of mitigation and recovery, noted the state provides a framework for disaster planning and preparedness and technical assistance in applying for federal grants.
In an Aug. 5 letter requesting a federal disaster designation, Gov. Chris Sununu pointed out the state was managing recovery efforts for a dozen active disasters dating back to the summer of 2017.
He wrote that damage from the storms and flooding this past July “could have been more severe if mitigation work was not previously accomplished.”
“Since Tropical Storm Irene (August 28, 2011), the state of New Hampshire has utilized over $18,900,000 in Section 404 funding toward mitigation projects throughout the State,” he wrote in the letter.
Crane Brook Road, a main industrial road in Acworth, was severely damaged in a 2021 storm, and remains closed for the long term, along with another key byway, Thayer Brook Road, which was a bus route and served the main corridor between Alstead and Acworth. (Hunter Oberst/The Keene Sentinel)
With a federal declaration of a disaster, FEMA funds are sent to the state, which then reimburses state agencies and local entities. FEMA will reimburse at least 75 percent of the eligible costs with a local match of 25 percent (often referred to as upfront money).
‘You don’t know what is going to happen’
On the Seacoast, communities face unique challenges, said Rye Police Chief Kevin Walsh, who is also the town’s emergency management director.
“It is hard for each town and each individual department each year to plan because you don't know what is going to happen,” he said. “You know, sometimes a whale washes up — that has happened. You just never know.”
A whale did wash ashore in Rye back in 2016, but typically the town — like its coastal neighbors — faces regular flooding and storm-related damage.
“The challenges are maintenance and upkeep,” Walsh said. “Things are often not kept up over the years or decades, and repairs just put it back the way it was. We are always trying to finagle funding.”
He added: “I’ve been in Rye for 30 years and some things have never been tough until now or it’s been a patchwork of repairs. (Infrastructure) needs a major overhaul. Maintenance is usually what gets cut first or put off to manage municipal budgets,”
The worst areas are the seawalls (revetments) from Rye to North Hampton and Bass Beach, which come down in every storm, he said. Significant reengineering and overhauling of problem areas is not just costly, he said, but complex due to the number of jurisdictions involved.
Walsh cited a situation in 2018 when the sidewalk along Church, Central and Causeway roads was damaged, and the town applied for FEMA funds for repairs.
“We waited a significant amount of time for [the N.H. Department of Transportation] to repair the revetment/seawall,” Walsh said. “The town waited to repair the sidewalk because, to repair the seawall/revetment, the construction equipment would damage the repaired sidewalk.”
Not long after those sidewalk repairs were made, it was damaged in another storm earlier this year.
“The saying is ‘do it twice, make it nice.’ “Well, this is money wasted when we do the same repairs twice,” he said. “It’s frustrating because I don’t like to see taxpayer money washed out into the ocean.”
Each location is different
When it comes to repairs, each location is assessed independently, leading to varying degrees of complexity due to factors like environmental regulations, said Brown of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. He said the timeline can be influenced by the type of work needed and the specific issues related to making those repairs.
“That really becomes the biggest thing — the complexities of each individual location,” Brown said.
There is some good news. The state received more than $20 million to rebuild seawalls and revetments to protect a coastal roadway between North Hampton and Rye, according to the state DOT. The project is currently in the design and permitting phase, with construction contracts likely to be awarded in 2025.
Jennifer Lane, spokesperson for the state DOT, noted several projects to repair storm damage are in process, and the seawall project is one of those that requires more than repair.
“You can only rebuild so much,” she said, noting that the project plan outlines how the aging seawalls are no longer adequate due to climate change and sea level rise.
Funding for the project came from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
When applying for the grant last year, Sununu wrote to the federal Department of Transportation: “Unfortunately, the frequency of storm and flood events causing extended road closures for flooding and cleanup along NH Route 1A have increased in the last 10 years.”
The latest 1A project is designed to ensure 3.2 miles of the roadway stays open during storms.
“The Route 1A corridor must stay open for public safety,” Chief Walsh said. “It’s considered critical infrastructure and in the emergency evacuation plan for Seabrook Nuclear Plant.”
While the project will alleviate some of the town’s infrastructure issues, Walsh said that, in an ideal world, there would be funding for design, engineering and construction “from one end of the coast to the other up into Maine in terms of drainage.”
Although that isn’t realistic, he and Town Administrator Matt Scruton said they are extremely appreciative of the support Rye gets from state and federal partners.
The state has received more than $20 million to rebuild seawalls and revetments along protect Route 1A between North Hampton and Rye that were most recently damaged by coastal flooding in a January storm. (DanTuohy / N.H. Public Radio)
“I cannot speak highly enough of them. They always reach out and make sure we have what we need,” Walsh said. “It’s pretty special to live in New Hampshire, where we get that individual touch.”
‘The domino effect’
In the western part of the state, small communities such as Acworth in Sullivan County have been hit repeatedly by storms in recent years, and the repairs seem never-ending.
Acworth, population 850, was hit by a storm in 2021 that destroyed 32 roads.
“We called it the domino effect,” said Kathi Bradt, a member of the select board. “As the town was still in recovery mode, it was hit by another bad summer storm in 2023. It was not exactly back-to-back, but close enough. It had a huge impact for a town of our size.”
Previously, the town would make repairs and move on. However, the 2021 storm changed things. The damage assessment was $20 million.
“It took a while for everyone to realize just how much damage was done,” she said.
This time around, however, it was time not to repair, but to rethink and reengineer.
“It was a turning point. We knew we had to make changes and find an engineer with a vision and different solutions,” she said.
After the 2021 storm, Acworth held a special town meeting to get voter approval for a $2 million loan to be used as front money to start repairs while waiting for federal reimbursement. The town paid the loan off earlier this year, as federal money has cycled back to the town for its current projects.
But two key roads are off limits for the long term. Crane Brook Road, which is several miles long and has five stream crossings, is a main industrial road. Thayer Brook Road was a bus route and served the main corridor between Alstead and Acworth.
At the same time, the state is overseeing reconstruction of the Forest Road Bridge.
“We are at the engineering stage right now, and we pushed the timeline out as far as we can, so we engineer different solutions instead of just putting it back the way it is,” Bradt said.
“We are talking about 2027 for construction, because you need a year on engineering, a year on permitting, and that kind of permitting goes beyond (the state Department of Environmental Services). It involves the Army Corps of Engineers, then you have to get it scheduled. These roads aren’t going to come back for a couple of years.”
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