I recently completed a month of trips to Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, serving as one of the educators and performers working with the dedicated staff of the Kingdom East School District to share with youth during the annual summer enrichment programs. The sense of community and the sheer enjoyment on the faces of children were palpable.

While these programs are often called “summer camps,” many activities and experiences in recent years have been designed to enhance the educational growth of young children impacted by several years of virtual learning during the pandemic.

However, my visit to the Lyndon, Vt., area during the week of July 30 was surreal. The region had become the epicenter of communities that experienced up to 8 inches of rain which had caused cataclysmic damage to roads, farmland and buildings, including many homes that were rendered uninhabitable by floodwaters. As a result, life had become focused upon survival and caring for the people most heavily impacted, including those who suddenly found themselves without shelter and life’s other basic necessities. Among the victims of the flood: the culminating week of summer camp had to be canceled.

Upon the conclusion of a program I presented at one of the schools following the flood, a student shared how they could no longer live in their family’s home because of flood damage, and that they were now staying with friends. Alarmed, I asked if everyone was safe, and the student replied, “Yes.” Then, after a brief pause, shared, “Except that we were only able to save one of our cats. The rest are gone.” Knowing that pets are cherished family members, and are especially loved by children, my heart was breaking as I listened to a child tell this story while putting on a brave face.

I’m recounting this experience from my office back in south-central, Vermont — a region that also has been hit with catastrophic flooding in recent years. During what the National Weather Service calls the Great Vermont Flood of 2023, from July 10-11, ours was among the many Vermont communities that received more than 9 inches of rain, washing out roads and bridges and flooding homes and nearby cities, villages and farms. Damage in some places exceeded that done by Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011. In order to find a storm whose impact was worse than these two recent meteorological maelstroms, one has to go back to the flood of November 1927.

Vermont communities are now experiencing what used to be called “100-year floods” and “500-year floods” on a regular basis. In the case of the Northeast Kingdom, two storms of such magnitude struck within two weeks of one another during July 2024. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has concluded that the record high temperatures associated with global warming are driving more frequent and intense storms of the kind we’re experiencing. NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies determined that July 2023 was the hottest month ever registered since meteorological record-keeping began in 1880. And July 2024 has given it a run for its money. As soon as we address one crisis generated by this many-headed meteorological hydra, two more rear their heads, demanding immediate emergency response and funding to pay for repairs and rebuilding.

Addressing the complex and dynamic problem of global warming requires working together to prepare communities to be more resilient for weathering the next storm, and for recovering from the damage and disruptions to human lives and the environment caused by floods, fires and other climate-driven events.

But the only way to ultimately defeat this foe once and for all is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. It will take every one of us, working together, to do so. We also need to support leaders who are proposing and implementing policies and actions that fight global warming.

As our collective response to recent storm damage has demonstrated, Vermonters are known for our ability to come together in community to help one another during times of hardship and duress. Every town and state across the country needs to muster that same sense of urgency, level of commitment and action to be ready for future storms and to mitigate the causes of climate change. We owe nothing less to our children, and to those of generations to come.

Michael Caduto is director of P.E.A.C.E. (Programs for Environmental Awareness & Cultural Exchange). He is the author of more than 20 books and many articles and op-eds. He lives in Reading, Vt.