-- Antonia Schreiber is taking no chances on the next big storm.
The remnants of Hurricane Irene turned the 200-year-old building that housed her Catskill Mountains spa boutique into a muddy mess a year ago in Windham, N.Y. She managed to reopen in the same town within months – but this time on higher ground.
"If it happens once, history has a tendency to repeat itself, and I hope it's a long, long time from now," Schreiber said, "but that's not a chance I want to take again."
Hard lessons have been learned in the year since Irene sent sedans bobbing down rivers, swept away historic covered bridges, put millions in the dark and killed dozens of people along the Eastern Seaboard. Responses range from personal gestures, like buying a home generator, to statewide policy changes, like the tightening of utility regulations.
Many of the reactions are based on the belief that while Irene surprised areas more used to blizzards than tropical weather, future storms are inevitable.
"Our question for Vermont is: What did we learn from Irene that we would do again and would put us in a better position with future storms in a climate-change future?" said Gov. Peter Shumlin, who scrambled after the storm hit his state Aug. 28 to help hill towns cut off from the world.
As Irene made landfall in North Carolina and roared up the East Coast, a densely populated corridor loaded with high-rises, suburban sprawl and pricey beach homes, officials in New York City and Long Island braced for storm surges and heavy winds by evacuating low-lying coastal areas and shutting down one of the world's largest subway systems.
The storm made a direct hit on New York City as a tropical storm, but damage there – and in other big cities such as Philadelphia and Boston – was minimal. That gave many Easterners the impression that the much-feared storm was a dud.
But in the days to follow, it became clear that the lashing rains had saved their most dramatic damage for 100 miles or more inland.
Tree-lined suburban neighborhoods in Connecticut lost power for days as branches crashed down. Surging streams in Vermont and in New York's Adirondack and Catskill mountains ripped up roads, bridges and homes. New York utilities replaced more than 300 miles of wire after the double whammy of Irene and, shortly afterward, the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee. In some cases, utility crews could not restore power for a week or more because the roads were gone.
Irene became the costliest Category 1 U.S. hurricane on record since at least 1980, with estimated total damage of $15.8 billion. The storm resulted in $4.3 billion in personal, commercial and auto insurance claims, according to Verisk Analytics, a publicly traded company that assesses risk.
Utilities, which came under scrutiny as crews struggled with extensive and long-lasting power failures, have already changed some of their practices.
Connecticut's largest utility, Connecticut Light & Power, has nearly doubled its tree-trimming budget, and lawmakers passed a bill that sets new emergency preparation standards for mass blackouts that last for more than two days.
Utilities in Connecticut pledged to do a better job informing customers of when the lights will come back on. Similarly, in New York, utility regulators this summer encouraged the use of text messaging and social media, such as Facebook, to communicate with customers.
But many people left powerless for days by Irene are no longer waiting on the power company.
In Ellicott City, Md., computer programmer Michael Medved contributed to the post-Irene bump in home generator sales. He bought one after more than five days of no power and changing the baby's diapers by flashlight.
"It was just horrible," Medved said. "I basically said, `I am not going through this again.'"
He spent $7,000 to have a propane generator installed – an investment that paid off this summer when a severe wind storm knocked out power for four days. His lights stayed on, and his 9-year-old son could still play video games.
"I was like a hero to my family," he said.
Medved, like many others, found a way to manage disaster rather than flee it. That is also true in the hard-hit towns in the mountains of Vermont and New York, where roots can run deep.
In the Catskills, Schreiber said she wouldn't think of relocating her Windham Spa from its quaint ski town, but also realizes "you can't stop 20 inches of rain from falling." She rents down the street from her old location and plans a permanent move to a property nearby that is not so flood-prone.
Governors in the Irene-ravaged states – likely mindful of President George W. Bush's plunging poll numbers after the government's criticized response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 – became visibly active before the first raindrops fell.
With prodding from statehouses, storm-ripped roads in Vermont and New York were repaired at a breakneck pace. Cars were back on the main route to Lake Placid in the Adirondacks, Route 73, within 15 days. Route 9 in southern Vermont was reopened in 11 days.
Shumlin said Vermont got the big things right in reacting to Irene, but he still sees room for improvement.
He mentioned the installation of larger road culverts and redesigning basements to let floodwater flow through. Vermont also has stepped up efforts to build redundant government computer networks after a close call during Irene.
Even in New York City, where Irene is viewed as the storm that wasn't, it still gave officials a trial run for their hurricane plan.
Cas Holloway, deputy mayor for operations, said Irene was useful for working the kinks out of the city's plan. For example, with the first evacuation order under way, officials discovered supply pallets delivered to schools being used as shelters were too wide to get through some doors.
As a result, some doors are being widened, and some pallets are being swapped out for smaller models.
And while there is concern that aggressively preparing city residents for a storm that never came could make the warning less effective next time – think of the boy who cried wolf – 34-year-old Brooklyn resident Raluca Preda said it's far better to know.
A year ago, Preda hunkered down in her apartment with her boyfriend and a stash of food, water, and movies, only to find that Irene presented little threat.
Still, Preda has no complaints.
"I think they did a great job," she said. "They prepared people. There was a lot of information, a lot of live coverage. They were very transparent."
___
Hill reported from Albany, N.Y. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Samantha Gross in New York City, Dave Gram in Montpelier, Vt., and John Christoffersen in New Haven, Conn.
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Tom Scorsone
In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012, in Totowa, N.J., Tom Scorsone, of the Passaic Valley Sewerage CommissionÂ's River Restoration Department, works on cleaning up debris out of the Passaic River. Flooding caused Irene, which hit New Jersey with tropical storm strength in 2011, forced blockage along the river as it swept through communities along the Passaic river. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
FILE - In this file photo of Aug. 28, 2011, a man surveys the floodwaters on ManhattanÂ's West Side after Hurricane Irene, downgraded to a tropical storm, hit New York. Two years before Irene created the prospect of a flooding nightmare in New York City, 100 scientists and engineers met to sketch out a bold defense: Massive, moveable barriers to shield the city from a storm-stirred sea.(AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
n this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012, in Totowa, N.J., crews from the Passaic Valley Sewerage CommissionÂ's River Restoration Department work on cleaning up debris out of the Passaic River. Flooding caused Irene, which hit New Jersey with tropical storm strength in 2011, forced blockage along the river as it swept through communities along the Passaic river. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2011, file photo, people near New York's Brooklyn Bridge wade through floodwaters brought on by Hurricane Irene, which weakened to a tropical storm just before hitting New York's Coney Island. Two years prior to Irene, 100 scientists and engineers met to sketch out a bold defense: massive, moveable barriers to shield New York City from a storm-stirred sea. The network would protect Manhattan and parts of the four outer boroughs and New Jersey, but not some vulnerable swaths of Brooklyn and Queens. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
In this photo taken Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012, in Totowa, N.J., crews from the Passaic Valley Sewerage CommissionÂ's River Restoration Department work on cleaning up debris out of the Passaic River. Flooding caused Irene, which hit New Jersey with tropical storm strength in 2011, forced blockage along the river as it swept through communities along the Passaic river. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
FILE - In this Aug. 27, 2011, file photo, waves crash against the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, N.J. as Hurricane Irene approached the northeast. Two years before Irene, 100 scientists and engineers met to sketch out a bold defense: Massive, moveable barriers to shield New York City from a storm-stirred sea. One strategy entailed an estimated $9.1 billion set of barriers at three critical points around the city's waterways. The network would protect Manhattan and parts of the four outer boroughs and New Jersey, but not some vulnerable swaths of Brooklyn and Queens. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2011, file photo, waves crash into the pier at Brooklyn's Coney Island as Hurricane Irene, downgraded to a tropical storm, approaches New York. Irene proved not to be the catastrophe forecasters feared in the city, but in the wake of last year's near-miss, elected officials and community groups are pressing for an evaluation of whether sea barriers make sense for New York, and the city has been gathering information, while stressing that the barriers represent only one of many ideas under study.(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2011, file photo, a biker makes his way around a taxi stranded in floodwaters of Hurricane Irene, downgraded to a tropical storm, in New York. Two years before Irene created the prospect of a flooding nightmare in New York City, 100 scientists and engineers met to sketch out a bold defense: massive, moveable barriers to shield the city from a storm-stirred sea.(AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
In this March 20, 2012, file photo, silt from Tropical Storm Irene covers a farmers' field Tuesday, March 20, 2012 in Waitsfield, Vt. A year after Hurricane Irene tore through farms from North Carolina to Vermont, some farmers are still grappling with the aftermath. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
FILE-In this Aug. 30, 2011, file photo, farmer's fields are flooded from Tropical Storm Irene in this aerial view on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011 in Rutland, Vt. A year after Hurricane Irene tore through farms from North Carolina to Vermont, some farmers are still grappling with the aftermath. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
FILE-In this Aug. 29, 2011, file photo, water covers Main St. in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene in Waterbury, Vt. Vermont has become a national leader in how to respond to natural disasters, Gov. Peter Shumlin says, and thereÂ's little heÂ'd change about the stateÂ's handling of flooding after Irene. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2011, file photo, an excavator works in the White River in Stockbridge, Vt. Tropical Storm Irene had a major effect on Vermont,s rivers. Hurricane Irene and its remnants raked the Caribbean, the eastern U.S. and Canada for more than a week a year ago. Though it never hit the U.S. as anything stronger than a minimal hurricane, it ranks among the costliest in history, causing more than $5.3 billion in damage, and killed at least 67 people in all. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
In this Aug. 17, 2012 photo, a sign remembers Tropical storm Irene in East Granville, Vt. A year ago, Vermont was devastated by the storm. Hard lessons have been learned in the year since Irene sent sedans bobbing down rivers, swept away historic covered bridges, put millions in the dark and killed more than 65 people all along the Eastern Seaboard. Responses range from personal gestures, like buying a home generator, to statewide policy changes, like the tightening of utility regulations. Many of the reactions are based on the belief that while Irene surprised areas more used to blizzards than tropical weather, future storms are inevitable. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
FILE-In this Aug. 30, 2011, file photo, workers begin repair to damage by Tropical Storm Irene on U.S. Route 4 in Mendon, Vt. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin hailed the reopening of U.S Route 4 in such a short time. Vermont has become a national leader in how to respond to natural disasters, Gov. Peter Shumlin says, and thereÂ's little heÂ'd change about the stateÂ's handling of flooding after Irene. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
FILE-In this Aug. 29, 2011, file photo, Nina Brennan, right, and Phyllis Berry clean mud from in front of the Proud Flower store in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene in Waterbury, Vt. Hard lessons have been learned in the year since Irene sent sedans bobbing down rivers, swept away historic covered bridges, put millions in the dark and killed more than 65 people all along the Eastern Seaboard. Responses range from personal gestures, like buying a home generator, to statewide policy changes, like the tightening of utility regulations. Many of the reactions are based on the belief that while Irene surprised areas more used to blizzards than tropical weather, future storms are inevitable. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
FILE -In this Oct. 31, 2011, file photo, a mobile home sits partially demolished by Tropical Storm Irene in Berlin, Vt. A year ago, Vermont was devastated by the storm. Hard lessons have been learned in the year since Irene sent sedans bobbing down rivers, swept away historic covered bridges, put millions in the dark and killed more than 65 people all along the Eastern Seaboard. Responses range from personal gestures, like buying a home generator, to statewide policy changes, like the tightening of utility regulations. Many of the reactions are based on the belief that while Irene surprised areas more used to blizzards than tropical weather, future storms are inevitable. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
In this Aug. 17, 2012 photo, Janet Lumbra stands outside the recreational trailer where she lives in East Granville, Vt. For some, there will be block parties and parades. For others, a moment of silence. Or it might be just another day of struggling to clean up the mess. But if thereÂ's one unifying event to mark the first anniversary of Irene, it'll probably be the 30 seconds of ringing of bells in churches and town halls across Vermont that Gov. Peter Shumlin has requested for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012, a year to the day after the storm changed Vermont forever.
FILE-In this Aug. 28, 2011, file photo, rescue personnel bring stranded residents to shore in Montpelier, Vt. A year ago, Vermont was devastated by Tropical Storm Irene. Hard lessons have been learned in the year since Irene sent sedans bobbing down rivers, swept away historic covered bridges, put millions in the dark and killed more than 65 people all along the Eastern Seaboard. Responses range from personal gestures, like buying a home generator, to statewide policy changes, like the tightening of utility regulations. Many of the reactions are based on the belief that while Irene surprised areas more used to blizzards than tropical weather, future storms are inevitable. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
In this Aug. 17, 2012 photo, the destroyed home of Janet Lumbra is seen in East Granville, Vt. For some, there will be block parties and parades. For others, a moment of silence. Or it might be just another day of struggling to clean up the mess. But if thereÂ's one unifying event to mark the first anniversary of Irene, it'll probably be the 30 seconds of ringing of bells in churches and town halls across Vermont that Gov. Peter Shumlin has requested for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012, a year to the day after the storm changed Vermont forever.
FILE-In this Aug. 30, 2011, file photo, destruction on Route 4 from Tropical Storm Irene is seen in Killington, Vt. A year ago, Vermont was devastated by Tropical Storm Irene. Hard lessons have been learned in the year since Irene sent sedans bobbing down rivers, swept away historic covered bridges, put millions in the dark and killed more than 65 people all along the Eastern Seaboard. Responses range from personal gestures, like buying a home generator, to statewide policy changes, like the tightening of utility regulations. Many of the reactions are based on the belief that while Irene surprised areas more used to blizzards than tropical weather, future storms are inevitable. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
FILE - In this Aug. 29, 2011, file photo, people walk along a washed out section of Route 12 in Berlin, Vt. A year ago, Vermont was devastated by Tropical Storm Irene. Hard lessons have been learned in the year since Irene sent sedans bobbing down rivers, swept away historic covered bridges, put millions in the dark and killed more than 65 people all along the Eastern Seaboard. Responses range from personal gestures, like buying a home generator, to statewide policy changes, like the tightening of utility regulations. Many of the reactions are based on the belief that while Irene surprised areas more used to blizzards than tropical weather, future storms are inevitable. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot
In this Aug. 17, 2012 photo, damage from Tropical Storm Irene is seen in Woodlawn Cemetery in Rochester, Vt. A year after flooding from Tropical Storm Irene washed 50 graves from their resting places, progress is slow toward repairing Woodlawn Cemetery and rebuiring dozens of sets of remains washed into the open.(AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
In this Aug. 17, 2012 photo, burial vaults are lined up in Woodlawn Cemetery in Rochester, Vt. A year after flooding from Tropical Storm Irene washed 50 graves from their resting places, progress is slow toward repairing Woodlawn Cemetery and rebuiring dozens of sets of remains washed into the open.(AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
In this Aug. 17, 2012 photo, Janet Lumbra looks over the remains of her home in East Granville, Vt. For some, there will be block parties and parades. For others, a moment of silence. Or it might be just another day of struggling to clean up the mess. But if thereÂ's one unifying event to mark the first anniversary of Irene, it'll probably be the 30 seconds of ringing of bells in churches and town halls across Vermont that Gov. Peter Shumlin has requested for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012, a year to the day after the storm changed Vermont forever. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
Mike Parillo
Mike Parillo, a volunteer at the Walter Elwood Museum , looks over items and records that were save and restored following flooding from last year's Hurricane Irene are on display on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012, in Amsterdam, N.Y. The flooding damaged about 40 state parks and historic sites, including sand erosion at Long IslandÂ's Jones Beach, miles of toppled trees, and a destroyed water main at Bear Mountain in the Hudson Valley. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
Items that were saved at the Walter Elwood Museum and restored following flooding from Hurricane Irene are on display on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012, in Amsterdam, N.Y. The flooding damaged about 40 state parks and historic sites, including sand erosion at Long IslandÂ's Jones Beach, miles of toppled trees, and a destroyed water main at Bear Mountain in the Hudson Valley.(AP Photo/Mike Groll)
Alessa Wylie
Alessa Wylie, director of Old Fort Johnson, stands in a hallway at the museum while showing off restoration work done there after damage caused by flooding from Hurricane Irene last year, on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012, in Fort Johnson, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
In this Aug. 28, 2011 photo, a flooded road is seen in Hatteras Island, N.C., after Hurricane Irene swept through the area Saturday cutting the roadway in five locations. Irene caused more than 4.5 million homes and businesses along the East Coast to reportedly lose power over the weekend, and at least 11 deaths were blamed on the storm. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
Sandy Gaffney reflects in her new trailer home on Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012 in Berlin, Vt. Gaffney lost the first home she ever owned when Tropical Storm Irene hit her mobile home park less than a year after she moved in. After months of struggle, bonding with and helping other flood victims, and speaking out, she's moved back in the Weston's Mobile Home Park, into a renovated trailer, and turned into an activist.(AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
New trailer homes are seen at Weston's Mobile Home Park on Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012 in Berlin, Vt. Sandy Gaffney lost the first home she ever owned when Tropical Storm Irene hit her mobile home park less than a year after she moved in. After months of struggle, bonding with and helping other flood victims, and speaking out, she's moved back in the Weston's Mobile Home Park, into a renovated trailer, and turned into an activist.(AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
FILE - In this Aug. 3, 2011 file photo, crews from Connecticut Light and Power replace a damaged transformer in East Windsor, Conn., in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene. The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority said Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012, it will consider reducing the allowed profit for CL&P as a penalty for the way the utility handled power outages during storms in August and October 2011. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)
Workers install a foundation at a house that was damaged after flooding caused by Tropical Storm Irene on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012, in Prattsville, N.Y. Hurricane Irene was trumpeted as a potentially huge disaster that could wipe out New York City. It initially underwhelmed but then stalked inland and tore apart a landlocked state. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
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By MICHAEL HILL 08/25/12 10:44 AM ET Associated Press