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People in hard-hit Northeast Kingdom towns like St. Johnsbury, Lyndonville and Barnet are surveying damage and figuring out how they'll carry on after last week's flooding. Some are facing permanent displacement.

Interviews with flood survivors, state and local officials and current and former FEMA employees reveals a pattern of administrative bloat at a federal agency that, to many Vermonters, seemed less interested in providing assistance than in finding ways to reject requests for aid.

Rains flooded parts of Stowe's Gold Brook last Sunday, rendering some roads in the eastern part of town completely impassable.

Counties eligible for federal funding include Essex, Lamoille, Orange, Orleans, Rutland, Windham and Windsor. They will be able to reimburse 75% of eligible recovery costs through FEMA’s Public Assistance Program.

In Weston, the select board is being asked to support a FEMA buyout of a commercial property. The board has to weigh losing the village store with accepting the effects of climate change on the downtown.

Vermont saw the bulk of this summer's catastrophic flooding the week of July 10 � but another big storm hit the state later that month. And FEMA now says damage from that second round of flooding will also be part of the federal disaster declaration.

Properties don’t have to be impacted by flooding directly in order to be eligible � they could be multi-family buildings that are otherwise out of commission.

About 200 or so families had homes and apartments that suffered severe flood damage.

Since historic flooding swept through the state last week, ¿ªÔÆÌåÓý and VTDigger have been working to gather information on what you can expect when applying for federal aid. Here’s what we know so far.

William Roy of Jericho is heading up FEMA's recovery efforts as the agency's coordinating officer. He spoke with ¿ªÔÆÌåÓý's Bob Kinzel about the counties not included in the major disaster declaration and the agency's response.