If you walk around downtown Montpelier today, it would be hard to believe the city experienced historic floods just a year ago that caused catastrophic damage to businesses and dozens of homes.

But under the surface, the effects of the flood, the lingering fallout from the COVID 19 pandemic and their impact on the work schedule of state employees have brought the economic future of Montpelier into question.

Things were very different last July, when torrential rains caused the Winooski River to rise well above flood stage in a matter of hours.

Water levels in many stores exceeded four feet, and most basements were totally destroyed.

It's been estimated that roughly 140 downtown businesses suffered more than $20 million in damages in just a 24 hour period.

There was such devastation downtown, and for the few days and weeks afterwards, you know, it just looked like a war zone or a natural disaster zone.

I have never experienced anxiety like that before in my life.

I mean, I would wake up at night and I couldn't eat.

I couldn't sleep.

It was really horrible.

Everyone was just kind of wandering around a kind of silted, watery shell of a downtown.

Just wondering what's next like zombies?

Despite the incredible challenges presented by the flood, many businesses remain committed to being located in downtown Montpelier.

You know, it was tough, but I feel a commitment.

I live here and I love small old downtowns, and I think downtowns have to be viable.

FEMA doesn't help businesses.

FEMA only helps homeowners, which is great.

So we had to take out a small business loan, and I wasn't generating any income, even though it wasn't due till next October.

But it was just that worry of How am I going to pay my bills?

When am I going to reopen?

Can I reopen?

I was closed until Black Friday.

We had to find a different location and we did find one that didn't actually flood during the this past July flood.

That doesn't mean that it won't flood with a larger flood in the future.

But this didn't flood by about an inch or so.

Most businesses don't have that luxury of moving to another spot.

So if we had another devastating flood were a lot of mom and pop shops, so, you know, people take out loans, you know, mortgage their homes, they put a lot of money on the line.

Their personal money.

And can they do that twice?

Probably not.

One of the challenges facing many businesses is the dramatic decline in state employees working in the city.

It's a trend that started with the 2020 pandemic and has been exacerbated by the significant damage done to state buildings during the flood.

Human Resources Commissioner Beth Fastiggi says there are roughly 2500 state employees in Montpelier and about half of them now have a remote schedule that allows them to come into the office two days a week or less.

She says this work environment is the new reality and is unlikely to change in the future.

Perhaps the sector hardest hit by the loss of state workers is the restaurant industry.

Brian Lewis is the owner of two restaurants in town, the Filibuster Cafe and Yellow Mustard.

He says a recent survey of about a dozen businesses shows that revenue is down around 40% from before the pandemic.

That's massive.

Trying to take a 40% reduction in your salary and see how you do paying your bills.

Something's going to have to go, right?

Montpelier is on a very short life cycle right now.

Not having workers coming into downtown due to remote work is not benefiting anyone.

Other than a small population.

A lot of these businesses put open signs back up, but they all took out massive amounts of debt.

Another factor complicating the return of state workers to Montpelier is the enormous damages that the flood caused to state buildings in the downtown capitol complex.

It's going to take years to totally reopen these buildings, according to Jennifer Fitch.

The state buildings and grounds commissioner.

She says these buildings need to be flood proofed and that means moving all of the electrical, mechanical and air handling systems that are currently housed in the basements to above flood levels on the first floor.

One group that played a pivotal role in flood recovery efforts is Montpelier Alive.

Immediately after the flood, they coordinated relief programs and organized volunteers to help businesses clean up.

Katie Trautz is the executive director of Montpelier Alive.

She says there's no quick fix to the challenges facing this city.

Businesses have really had to pivot to figure out how to compensate for the lack of workers downtown, especially the lunch spots and the restaurant industry.

It's been extremely challenging.

It's a very long process when you look at the big picture and it's really going to take a few years to hit a sense of normalcy here.

But I think we've worked really hard collectively as a community and our streets are clean and we've put a lot of efforts into beautification.

A major question facing many downtown businesses is if they can hold on while the state's recovery plan unfolds.

It's a process that could easily take 3 to 5 years to complete.

If we just see a little bit of support and people realizing, hey, this city is in a tough spot, we need to we need to act quickly.

But people will rally behind that.

You have to be optimistic.

we love this community, love doing what we do, love seeing all of our friends or our customers come in here every day.

Friends are our staff and employees as well.

We go on group rides together, so we want to stick around and we want to be a part of that.

I just feel like it's important for me to be here.

Scary but important.