WOLCOTT, Vt. (WCAX) - Vermont is beginning to demolish homes clobbered in the devastating 2023 floods. It’s part of FEMA’s buyout program, which aims to make communities safer when flood waters rise again. The program is giving flood survivors a long-awaited fresh start.

Bernie Earle and his wife have lived in their home in Wolcott for the last 23 years. After three bouts of flooding — Tropical Storm Irene and the July 10 floods of 2023 and 2024 — Earle said it was clearly time to move. “It was time to get the hell out of there,” he said.

Earle applied for FEMA’s buyout program, where the government purchases and tears down homes, restoring the land to the flood plain. It’s a welcome relief, but Earle said getting a buyout was a long and complicated process. “I can’t say they didn’t help

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