BOSTON – The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending almost $1.9 million to the State of Vermont to reimburse the costs of relocating patients at the former Vermont State Hospital after it flooded during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.
The $1,876,426 Public Assistance grant will go to the Department of Buildings and General Services for the costs of setting up a temporary mental health facility in Morrisville after the August 2011 storm flooded the Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury.
The state’s lone secure mental health hospital in the Waterbury State Office Complex (WSOC) had to be evacuated after the nearby Winooski River overflowed its banks and inundated the complex. FEMA also partially funded the construction of a new 25-bed, acute care hospital to replace VSH, the Vermont Psychiatric Care Hospital (VPCH) in Berlin, which was completed in 2014.
“Recovery from a catastrophic event like Tropical Storm Irene is a long and complex process,” said FEMA Region I Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. “FEMA is pleased to assist Vermont as it wraps up the few remaining projects and prepares to close the books on Irene.”