When they bought their organic vegetable farm in South Royalton, Vt., slung along the fertile floodplain of the White River, Ashley Loehr and Antoine Guerlain took comfort in the dense buffer of shrubs and trees that lay between their fields and the gently swirling water. It was 2021, a decade after the remnants of Hurricane Irene drove the river far over its banks, swamping the farm and wide swaths of the state. Determined to prevent another such disaster, the prior owner had proactively planted the trees, imagining a rising wall of woods that would at least make future flooding less grievous. There was no way to know if the barrier, 35 feet wide, would be enough — until last July, when another devastating storm surged across Vermont. The river gathered force and busted through, again overtaking fields and destroying crops.

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Persons: Ashley Loehr, Antoine Guerlain, Hurricane Irene Locations: South Royalton, Vt, Vermont