Sereena Knight Dartmouth College ’24
Over the past year, I have been researching the complex dimensions behind the destruction from the 2023 summer floods in Vermont. Much of my interest in this subject has stemmed from the critical, anthropological concept that purely-natural disasters – particularly those related to climatic phenomena – do not exist. Rather, it has been asserted that behind such disasters, there are unnatural influences – including sociological factors relating to economics and land use – that can be traced to affect their development, scope, or impact. This is not to say that climate disasters lack any natural elements – after all, the Earth’s climate system is, at its core, natural. However, even within the isolated dimension of climate science, it is quite clear that the intense floods experienced across Vermont in the summer of 2023 were unnatural, or abnormal, at least in their time frame and intensity.
I am currently writing a research article that seeks to reconcile these 2 overarching elements of “the unnatural” in Vermont’s 2023 summer floods – namely, the sheer, abnormal intensity of the floods, and the historical circumstances related to economics and land management in the area – as seen in the context of the town of Ludlow. My article will more specifically focus on the disaster as it impacted one particular group in the town: mobile homes, particularly those within the Black River Mobile Home Court. Many of Ludlow’s historic structures – such as the landmark woolen mill – have experienced recurring, intense flooding since the town’s settlement, with records dating back to the 1800s. The historic economic circumstances and land use decisions pertaining to Ludlow’s early history as a mill town – with structures built near to, or on, the Black River precisely for this reliance on water – can be traced to have largely influenced the damage that those historic floods produced. However, the Black River Mobile Home Court – the main site of my study – was built along the banks of the Black River only 50 years ago, after Ludlow had transitioned from primarily a mill-based economy to a tourism-based economy. In just this 50-year period, the Mobile Home Court has already experienced some of the most damaging floods in the town’s history. Through extensive archival, historical, and ethnographic research, I have arrived at the conclusion that a review of history – the history of the region of the Black River Mobile Home Court, the history of Ludlow, and the history of Vermont – can help to explain the recent disaster of the 2023 summer floods in Ludlow. Based upon this research, I am writing this article with the intention of putting into conversation the 2 overarching, “unnatural” influences of this disaster: the unique, climate-change-influenced phenomenon behind the power of this flood, and the economic and land use histories of Ludlow. I believe that this article will give further validation to the concept that no climate disaster experienced today is inherently natural, and also with this understanding, perhaps give hope to the further assertion that climate disasters are not inevitable.
