Heavy rains last Thursday in Grafton County caused an estimated $1 million in damages in the towns of Orange and Canaan.
Dorothy Heinrichs is the chair of the Orange select board.
"The town of Orange since, it’s so small, only has 12 miles of town roads. And we suffered an estimated half a million dollars to those roads,” she said.
Canaan will also have road repairs and a bridge replacement to make from the storm.
Mike Samson, the town administrator, says it'll take about three months and another half million dollars to get all those repairs done.
Roads in town are passable, he said, but, “we’ll still have work to do on the shoulders, and still have work to do to smooth them out and crown them.
Samson says the Canaan Motor Club sustained about $1 million in damages and will be close the rest of the year.
Several other towns were also affected, including Groton, Hebron and Dorchester.
The state's Department of Safety is collecting initial assessments from towns. Then, those are sent to FEMA as a part of the process in filing for a major disaster declaration from the president.
If the damages exceed the state threshold of $1.9 million, and are validated by FEMA, then the governor can ask the president for a major disaster declaration.
If approved, then affected towns would receive technical support and funding to make repairs.
