Nearly a year after catastrophic flooding struck Vermont, the city of Barre confronts the overwhelming task of steeling itself for the next climate disaster.

Two bridges need to be raised. Barre’s north end “literally needs to be rebuilt,” said Mayor Thom Lauzon, who was recently elected and now oversees the city’s recovery. Of the 300 properties damaged by the flooding, many are still in various states of disrepair, and at least 50 are uninhabitable.

Across the country, state and local leaders are scrambling to find the money they need to protect their communities from worsening disasters fueled by climate change. For Barre, needed flood mitigation projects will cost the city an estimated $30 million over the next five years, Lauzon said.

Yet Vermont has a new answer to this problem.

Earlier this month, it became the nation’s first state to require fossil fuel companies and other big emitters to pay for the climate-related damage their pollution has already caused statewide. While conservative legal experts are skeptical the law will survive challenges, some Vermonters said they are both grateful and a little nervous that one of the nation’s least populous states has picked a fight with one of America’s most powerful industries.