What’s Next at the Berlin Mobile Home Park

Tucked off the busy Barre-Montpelier Road next to the Stevens Branch of the Winooski River, their neighborhood of mobile homes was a well-kept street of green lawns, flowers, and shrubs until the river flooded on July 11, leaving mud several inches thick mud covering everything outside and inside their homes. There was aid at the park on Saturday: Michele Pheeney, from Barre’s Rainbow Bridge Community Center, checked with all the residents who were there to offer assistance and information; the Berlin Fire Department distributed water; and Erika Holm of the Central Vermont Humane Society was trying to catch one of many cats she has rescued from the site. But there were not the coordinated efforts and lines of volunteers seen in places such as Montpelier.

It’s an open question whether their homes can be lived in again; exactly what will happen to the piles of furniture, clothing, and household items they’ve pulled from them; or where they will ultimately live. They do know that they’ve been told that as long as their homes are there, the $500 August rent payment is due Aug. 1.

 All photos shown here are by John Lazenby. See more of Lazenby’s photos of the 2023 Vermont flood here. Click on the photos below to enlarge them.