LUDLOW — Overlooking a smorgasbord of area hotels, restaurants and shops, Okemo Mountain Resort promises townspeople and travelers an experience that, according to its website, “becomes effortless.”
Unless you’re hungry for the region’s sole supermarket, which a perfect storm of complications is forcing into a potentially long winter hibernation.
Locals rewind back to the July 10 lunch hour when their central village — then reporting the most rainfall in a spreading statewide downpour — morphed into an island as flooding closed the lone Route 103 artery between Rutland and Springfield.
“We were the hardest hit in southern Vermont,” recalls Municipal Manager Brendan McNamara, who estimates damage to his Windsor County town at more than $20 million, with $15 million of that ravaging the municipal wastewater treatment facility.
After five months of rebuilding, the community is again welcoming skiers and snowboarders who multiply its year-round population of 2,172 as much as 10 times on a holiday weekend.
“We are extremely lucky that our crews and contractors kicked it into gear,” McNamara said in a recent interview. “Come through town now and you think, ‘Wow, there was a flood here?’”
Just don’t try to enter the local Shaw’s supermarket. The only big-box grocer within a half-hour radius remains closed as its owners aim to clear a new squall of obstacles that could spin well into next year.
After Tropical Storm Irene flooded the store in 2011, Shaw’s needed five months to replace concrete flooring, conduits and cable between the August rain and the January 2012 reopening.
This time, workers have removed all waterlogged equipment, only to have to wait as employees of both the town and store speculate about delays potentially caused by Shaw’s pending $24.6 billion merger with Kroger, the nation’s largest supermarket operator.
(U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is one of six national lawmakers who wrote the Federal Trade Commission on Monday to express opposition to the acquisition, according to a letter reviewed by Reuters.)
Store officials recently sought municipal permission to reconstruct the 19,000-square-foot interior as well as expand into an adjacent Rite Aid Pharmacy that closed after the storm. But the threat of snow on Monday forced Ludlow’s Development Review Board to postpone a review meeting until next week, prompting one more delay.
“Our goal is to have our Shaw’s store in Ludlow open as soon as possible in 2024,” company spokesperson Teresa Edington said in a statement.
But the chain has yet to announce a timetable for repairs, which contractors estimate could take three months.
“They have not given us a specific date, and I don’t think they know 100%,” McNamara said. “But I would be surprised if they reopen much before March. It’s tremendously difficult for us without a grocery store.”
Then again, Ludlow has experience with improvising. After Irene flooded Shaw’s in 2011, the chain rented a tent to create its first-ever canvas commissary. Scaling down the usual 20,000 items to the best-selling 700, it traded electronic barcodes and laser beams for old-fashioned price tags and punch-key cash registers powered by backup generators and batteries.
This time, the supermarket is offering online ordering for people who log on to its website, choose the Ludlow Shaw’s zip code 05149 and click on items. The only hiccup: The chain doesn’t usually deliver items to its parking lot for pickup until the next day, leaving gas stations and smaller out-of-town markets as the only options for people with last-minute needs.
As a result, the town has added a warning to its website advising people to plan ahead.
“Hoping that this link,” it says of the online ordering option, “will make your stay in Ludlow more enjoyable.”
This summer’s flooding also has led to property buyout requests from three local businesses — Sam’s Steakhouse, Subway and the Timber Inn Motel — and will require the town to extensively renovate if not replace its municipal wastewater treatment facility.
“Our plant was one of the hardest hit in the state,” McNamara said. “Operation-wise, we’re functional. But if you go down there, everything still looks like a bomb went off.”
But with most roads and businesses reopened, the community has largely rebounded since flooding from nearly 9 inches of precipitation sparked headlines in such national newspapers as the New York Times and the Washington Post.
“It’s not a great feeling,” McNamara said, “when you log on to a state briefing or FEMA meeting and the picture that they show is of your town.”
Clarification: The options for same-day groceries in the Ludlow area have been clarified.