Rainstorm floods area streets
Residents and first responders along the Connecticut coastline scrambled Saturday to keep up with flooding streets as a storm dumped rain through much of the day.
Fairfield saw the most rainfall Saturday at 1.39 inches, the National Weather Service said at 2 p. m., which was shortly after high tide. Next in line were Shelton with 1.12 inches, Bridgeport with 0.9 inches and Stratford with 0.88. Norwalk and Stamford had seen just over half an inch of rainfall by that time.
“We did see an increase call volume during the storm, due to flooding,” Norwalk Police Lt. Terry Blake said.
Rain a fell hard in New York and New Jersey, with rainfall totals there totaling between 1 to 2 inches.
Fairfield police said high tide, which was around 1: 40 p. m., was between 2.5 to 3.5 feet above normal. Water rose along Fairfield Beach Road, which became impassable from the 1200 block on.
Area police and fire departments urged residents not to attempt to drive through low- lying areas or flooded roadways.
But floodwaters receded as rain continued to come down, mostly in a drizzle, later Saturday. In several towns and cities, roads that had been closed during the peak of the flooding were reopened at about 4: 30 p. m., several police and fire departments across Fairfield County said.
“As the water receded, we were left to deal with several vehicles that had been driven into flooded roadways and become disabled in East Norwalk, South Norwalk and Rowayton,” Blake said.
In Westport, which got about 0.6 inches of rain by midafternoon on Saturday, several shorefront roads were closed because of flooding, but the town saw no serious incidents, police said.
“We had some flooding at high tide, but much of it has receded since the tide went down,” Police Lt. Jillian Cabana said.
With the storm came winds, with gusts reaching the area of 50 mph. Various power outages were reported throughout the state during the afternoon. But by later Saturday evening, only scattered outages remained.