"Despite the agency’s attempts to account for bigger storms, its outdated rules leave communities unprepared for disaster".

"SHARON, Vt. — During tropical storm Irene in 2011, small streams roared like gigantic fire hoses, washing away or severely damaging hundreds of bridges and culverts across Vermont, including Fay Brook Bridge, which had stood for more than 80 years in a narrow valley outside this tiny village.

“Mother Nature is powerful,” says David Indenbaum, an emergency room doctor who lives up a steep slope near the bridge, over what is usually a gentle brook. “It was incredible. I never thought something like that could happen.”

With the old bridge out of commission, Indenbaum’s 40-minute commute to Central Vermont Medical Center, in the town of Berlin, grew by as much as an hour and sent him over unpaved single-lane roads. School buses and emergency vehicles had to take the same detour, adding as many as 12 slow miles to their trips."

Elizabeth Shogren reports for Aljazeera America August 11, 2015. [2]