‘A Full Restoration Effort’ After 12 Inches of Rain in Danbury

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(TNS) – As he reckons with the damage from last weekend’s heavy rainstorm, Southbury First Selectman Jeff Manville recalled the tornado of 2018 — which he said was the worst flooding to hit the town.

“I had 100 percent road closure and 100 percent power outage,” he said. “We were one of the hardest hit towns and Gov. Dan Malloy, at the time, never stopped to see us. They went to Brookfield instead. So we took care of it and we got a full reimbursement from ( Federal Emergency Management Agency) for our damages. We tracked everything.”

With the flooding damage the town got over the weekend, Manville said he’s tracking everything once again. “And we’ll be dealing with FEMA when they declare a disaster and FEMA money opens up,” he said.

Southbury is among the towns with the most severe damage from Sunday’s deadly rainstorm, when up to 12 inches of rain was recorded in parts of Fairfield and New Haven counties, according to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network. Due to the significant damage across the state, Gov. Ned Lamont on Tuesday submitted a request to FEMA for a federal emergency declaration for Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties, so that affected communities may be able to get federal aid.

While floodwaters have largely receded and the majority of roads across the Danbury area have reopened, officials said Tuesday that they’re working to repair damage to roads and assisting residents, including some in Danbury public housing, who are still displaced.

Danbury, where damage included a mudslide near the entrance to the Shelter Rock Road condominium complex, reopened all roads as of 2:30 p.m. Monday, according to Erin Henry, public relations specialist for the city of Danbury.

On Tuesday, Manville said he doesn’t yet have a timeline as to when Southbury roads will be restored. Roads still partially out of service as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the town’s website, include Crook Horn Road, Georges Hill Road, Kettletown Road, Old Field Road, and Old Waterbury Road.

Additionally, Route 67 is closed between Kettletown Road and Community House Road (south end), Sanford Road is closed between Jeremy Swamp and Jacob Road, Stillson Road is closed between #154 and #248 and West Flat Hill Road is closed at #266.

“We are assessing the damage, meeting with our emergency management director to try and restore what’s left of power outages. … (We will) determine what the priorities are and what we have to do to be able to access all our roads,” Manville said.

Additionally, Southbury Public Library will be closed “for the foreseeable future due to flooding and damage,” said an announcement on the library’s website. Additionally, the post said Parks and Recreation programming is canceled until further notice. All parks in town, athletic fields and town pool are also closed.

A social media post Monday announcing the library’s closing had over 20 comments, with many people offering to help in any way they can.

In Newtown, First Selectman Jeffrey Capeci said the town will be “approximately 80 percent back with our roads by today (Tuesday) and by the end of the week, (we’ll) be at 98 percent.” The Sandy Hook section of Newtown recorded the highest rainfall in the state — 12.17 inches —, as of 7 a.m. Monday, according to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network.

On the town’s website, Capeci said challenging routes such as Great Quarter Road, Sawmill Road and Lakeview Terrace Extension are now accessible. He also said “all 42 previously obstructed roads are now passable although many were flooded and may have compromised shoulders.”

James Gracy, director of public works for the town of Redding, said roads that are still an issue include North Park Avenue, Sport Hill Road, Glen Road, Brookside Road, and George Hull Hill Road.

“We’re working on Umpawaug Road today. We’re cleaning it up and filling in some of the drainage and widening the road back up again,” he said. “We’re hoping we’ll get some of them passable by the end of the week. Hopefully, it all depends on the weather. The weather’s supposed to be on our side the next couple of days.”

He added on Newtown Turnpike, there’s a bridge that will be one lane “for quite a while, until we get some funding and some engineering to inspect the rest of the bridge.”

He also said Route 53 is closed off to all traffic.

“They’re just reservoirs,” he said, to describe the area. “We had one part of (Route) 53 down to one lane yesterday, and they were repairing it. So the way they were working yesterday, I’m thinking the next couple of days, that’ll be completely open.”

He added if the town will ask FEMA money to do repairs, “we need to have every T crossed, I dotted — everything.”

Samaia Hernandez, spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation, said crews have repaired and re-opened at least 10 state roads since Sunday.

“However, more than a dozen roads (are still) closed due to flooding. … We are still awaiting the water levels to recede to best inspect and understand the breath of the issues,” she said. “Some locations are not safe to access. We’ll have a better idea of the path forward in the days ahead.”

Shelter Rock Road condos, Glen Apartments

At the Danbury complex where the mudslide occurred, residents were able to return to their condos as of 6 p.m. Monday, Henry said. However, the entrance to the complex, at 160 Shelter Roack Road, is still not passable.

Additionally, most of the residents of the Glen Apartments on Memorial Drive, who were evacuated and spent the night at La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Danbury and other places, were able to return to their apartments by Monday. On Tuesday, only 20 units of the complex were still uninhabitable.

Matthew Cassavechia, Danbury’s emergency management director, said the city is continuing to work with the Housing Authority on assessing the flooded units.

“The Housing Authority has taken the lead on this to plan a full restoration effort, which would include the necessary inspections to reoccupy those particular units,” he said.

“The Housing Authority is working on accommodations for those individuals, both short term and potentially long term. Those efforts were underway yesterday and continue to be sorted out.”

He added occupants of the 20 units are “all housed in a safe location.”

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