Vermont was struck by a series of floods in 2023, with the largest being floods in July 2023 (DR-4720). This was followed by severe flooding a year later. This builds on a history of flooding in the state that has led to many federally declared floods. To plan for avoiding future flood damages in select communities hit hard by the 2023 floods the Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission (TRORC) has contracted with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (VTDEC), with funding from FEMA, to engage in an outreach effort that is primarily meant to assist flood-affected towns in better managing floodplain development to reduce flood risk. This effort will be known as "Flood Community Assistance Program (FCAP)".

This effort is intended to be coordinated with previous work by TRORC, under contract to Vermont Emergency Management (VEM), to manage engineering services to help these communities prioritize, select, and develop applications to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for physical flood damage reduction projects. That process is known as RIVER (https://riverprojectsvt.org/). RIVER is a separate process to the work under this request, and this work will build on the work completed under the RIVER project (https://riverprojectsvt.org/).

What has become evident during discussions with the affected communities in RIVER is that an effective response and preparation for the next flood is hindered by:

• A lack of understanding of river dynamics,
• Flood risk being minimized despite recent actual events,
• A sense of community residual fear,
• Regulatory actions to reduce flood damage not being well understood, and
• Failure to reach those most affected by flooding.

These factors lead to:

• Unworkable "solutions" being put forward,
• Lack of political will to address flooding,
• Lack of ability to honestly discuss risk,
• Lack of uptake of improved flood regulations, emergency warning or preparedness, and
• Lack of public support for serious flood reduction actions.

Consultant services under this RFP will help address these shortcomings in understanding, acceptance, commitment, and cohesion through a series of facilitated public events and outreach materials. This work will focus on:

• Barre, Berlin, Montpelier
• Barton, Glover
• Hardwick
• Cambridge, Johnson, Wolcott
• Ludlow
• Weston, Jamaica, Londonderry
• Plymouth, Bridgewater, and Woodstock.

Work under this RFP will focus on these communities, but will recognize the larger upstream watershed contexts. These areas are not homogenous and have varying degrees of flood studies and other projects underway in them already.

Consultants will have local support for their work provided by the relevant regional planning commission (RPC) under separate contract to TRORC for outreach to local officials, local situational knowledge, arranging meeting locations and logistics, and staff support at events. The RPCs are under separate contract to TRORC for these services, and will not be providing direct support to this project.. The RPCs will not be managing the meetings, preparing ads, or generating materials. They may be used as sounding boards when developing materials/approach for the FCAP project.

Consultant work will need to mesh with other interconnected projects that are ongoing at the state, regional, or community level to avoid redundancy or conflicting messages, and increase synergy and alignment.

The contract currently has a very short timeframe due to FEMA requirements.

The full RFP is found at https://www.trorc.org/rfps-rfqs/