BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — “Between Hurricane Irene and the Brooks House fire, our downtown has sustained some big hits lately,” said Jan Norris, owner of the Delectable Mountain fabric store on Main Street.

The key word is “sustained.” Despite the double wallop in 2011 — in April a fire gutted the historic Brooks House, which makes up an entire block anchoring the north end of the street, followed in August by the flooding of lower-elevation streets after Irene — this resilient city of 12,000 doesn’t seem to have skipped a beat. The hardships, economic and otherwise, wrought by these catastrophes are still very real. Yet on a bright winter Saturday, crowded sidewalks signal a vitality that many small cities would envy in any season.