Lamont tours shuttered Darien businesses after Ida floodwaters
DARIEN — Gov. Ned Lamont toured downtown businesses Friday that were wrecked by the torrents of rain brought by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, filling culverts, overwhelming stormwater systems and flooding some properties for the first time ever.
The town received nearly 9 inches of rain during the storm, prompting First Selectwoman Jayme Stevenson to declare a local emergency. On Friday, while touring affected areas with Lamont, she referred to it as a “500-year” storm.
Just two months earlier, many of the same areas were inundated by Tropical Storm Elsa, Stevenson said, leaving groundwater saturated. “Water had nowhere to go during Ida,” she said.
Outside the shuttered NEAT Coffee in Grove Street Plaza, Lamont listened to owner Alison Emel describe how the cafe’s basement filled “like a fishbowl,” knocking out the building’s electrical, heating and cooling and water filtration systems before flooding the first-floor storefront.
“It’s a mess in there. They’ve ripped out all the floorboards, we have no power, no lights, no nothing,” Emel said.
For the time being, Emel said she’s using a generator and a home coffeemaker to brew some cups to sell outside her store while she waits to reopen, which she said could take up to four weeks. Repairs are being completed by the building’s owners, she said, adding that they do not have flood insurance.
Local developer David Genovese told Lamont that “at least” six businesses in downtown Darien are likely to close permanently as a result of the storm.
“They got crushed, after two storms,” Genovese said. “They just have no reserves, so it’s just a pretty tough situation.”
At nearby Goodwives Shopping Center, Lamont spoke to the owners of Imperial Dy Cleaners, which was flooded during both Elsa and Ida, owner Yun Kim said, with 10 inches of water coming high enough to reach some of the longer dresses hanging in the store during last week’s storm.
“This area, no one has flood insurance,” Kim said, estimating that his business sustained about $50,000 in storm damage. “I didn’t know this was a flood zone. We just found out.”
At his last stop of the day, Lamont met with the owners of four homes at the end of Crimmins Road who said they were seeking a way to have the state or federal government buy out their homes following two devastating floods this summer.
Nearby Stony Brook, which longtime homeowners said was once too small to notice, roared to the tops of garage doors during Ida.
“My back is to the wall,” said Joe Kane, who purchased his home with his wife, Molly, last year, in part because he said no flood claims had ever been made on the property.
Now with a 3-month-old son, Finn, the couple said they no longer view the area as safe for their family but do not believe they will be able to sell a house with repeated flood damage.
Standing in front of the Kanes’ home, Lamont said he wanted to work with FEMA to make impacted residents whole, while pointing to other efforts his administration and lawmakers have taken to address coastal resiliency and stormwater management.
“The question is how much can we mediate this to prevent it from happening in the future, and how much cannot be remediated,” Lamont said. “You heard his answer that maybe some of these houses shouldn’t be here.”
In July, the governor signed legislation that could invest up to $30 million from state borrowing as well as federal and private funds toward combating the near-term effects of climate change. The law also expanded a pilot program allowing municipalities to establish their own stormwater authorities, though only New London has done so.
Stevenson said town officials were considering the possibility of creating a stormwater authority “to see if that gives us any other tools in the toolbox,” and federal funds from the infrastructure bill could also be made available to build new systems for diverting floodwaters.
“We’re going to turn over every rock to see what more we can do that’s reasonable and has a good outcome in terms of mitigation projects,” Stevenson said.