Darien looks to mitigate future floods
DARIEN — The substantial flooding woes experienced by many residents following two major recent storms — Elsa and Ida — were vented Monday night in a “Public Listening Session” of the Board of Selectmen.
Unfortunately, as Jeremy Ginsburg, director of the Planning and Zoning Department succinctly told the board in a discussion afterward, there are “no quick and easy solutions.”
“It is raining more,” said Craig Flaherty, Darien’s sewer commission chair and a former member of the Flood Mitigation Committee, noting that heavy rainfall has increased by 55 percent since 1958.
“In general, storm water drainage systems aren’t designed to handle storms like Ida,” he said, detailing the intense levels of rain many agreed were due to climate changes.
But while residents, in some cases, indicated they were resolved to new weather patterns, they still want to know what the town intends to do about the issue going forward.
“The amount of water that’s coming over Renshaw Road, it’s unbelievable,” said Ray Bartone, who has lived on Crimmins
Road for 19 years.
He was among 20 or so residents who spoke about the excessive flooding they experienced in their homes, including immense property damage and dramatic evacuations in the middle of the night, all of which were worse during Ida on Sept. 1.
“I lost everything,” said Daniel Porcelli, owner of Vavala’s Deli on Heights
Road, across from the Noroton Heights train station. “My business is still currently closed.”
“There was a river running through our backyard,” said resident Cynthia Ferreira, whose downstairs apartment where her 85-year-old mother lives was ruined.
“I can’t even move,” she said. “I can’t sell my house for any value… I feel like I’m at an impasse and don’t know what to do.”
Officials expressed a need to help the residents and business owners in own.
“I’m heartbroken for the residents,” Selectperson Sarah Neumann said. “We need to come up with a solution.”
Bartone pointed out that the town and state have been conducting studies on the matter dating back to the 1950s, but said more tangible action needs to be taken, including allocating money to directly deal with flooding.
“We have to come to grips with climate change, which we know is upon us, but we (also) have to come to grips with the fact that we’ve overbuilt the town,” he said, stating the problem needed to be dealt with by everyone in Darien, not only those feeling the impact from living near the Goodwives, Noroton and Stonybrook waterways.
Residents shard the sentiment.
“We believe it’s time for the town to invest in flooding mitigation now,” said resident Josh Smith. Ellen Pawelczak said her Bailey Avenue home is not in a designated flood zone, but after 23 years of never having experienced an issue with flooding, Ida brought major water damage.
“An over-three-foot-high wall of water slammed into the back of our house,” she said, ruining their basement, garage and three cars.
She raised questions about whether this was likely to happen again and whether the town had data on what caused such a surge.
“We’re not expecting miracles but the very worse thing that can happen is if the town is not transparent with us about what can be done and what will be done,” she said.
As he and other officials expressed their sympathy and understanding, Flaherty shared details on the work of the Flood Mitigation Committee, which began in 2008 and went dormant about two years later.
Consultant Malone & McBroom was engaged by the town and produced “voluminous reports,” which were reviewed by the committee and led to a string of recommendations, many of which were implemented, he said.
Among these were incentives to get homeowners to make flood-related improvements on their properties, more stringent guidelines for new constructions in flood zones, allocation of additional staff, public education and money invested in the town’s geographical information system to augment more data being on hand. The town also bought at least one home within the flood plain that was subsequently knocked down and the property made open space.
“It sounds like a lot of soft things but those soft things deal with hard results,” Flaherty said.
Officials pointed out that the waterways — which are often further clogged up with debris during the storm, causing more problems in a chain reaction — were not equipped to handle the intense levels of rain, needing complicated redesigns.
Ed Gentile, director of the Department of Public Works, said that per state guidelines the 3,000 or so catch basins in town were cleaned annually, as well as given extra attention prior to each big storm.
“We’re gonna have to chip away at it little by little,” he said of the issue, which simply can’t be mitigated with one simple fix.