The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Middletown, Shoreline areas see flooding, but escape worst
While Middletown was largely spared significant damage as the remnants of Ida ripped through the area overnight, prompting torrential downpours, officials are now more intently focused on being prepared for the next one.
“It was a hell of a storm,” Mayor Ben Florsheim said Thursday morning. “For the second time in a couple weeks, we kind of dodged a bullet in
Middletown — both in terms of trajectory and timing.”
A rare flash flood warning was issued by the National Weather Service just after midnight and lasted until around 6 a.m. Thursday. The emergency alert called it a “dangerous and life-threatening situation.”
“If it was a few degrees to the north in terms of trajectory, we would still be underwater right now,” the mayor said.
Overnight, there was street flooding on Nejako Drive, Westfield Street and Mile Lane, Middletown Fire Chief Jay Woron said. Areas of town that routinely flood were affected, he said.
However, “there was nothing crazy or out of the ordinary.”
His crews were called to Wesleyan University’s Butterfield dormitory about a water issue, he said, after which students were sent to the Freeman Athletic Center for the evening.
Northwoods Apartments, off Town Colony Drive, experienced some flooding. Waters had moved some dumpsters and even knocked a few over. Some tenants rolled down their vehicle windows in the morning to dry out the interior.
Over at the South Fire District, Chief James Trzaski said the storm turned out to be “anti-climactic.”
Although firefighters were called to a few homes about water in people’s basements and a kitchen, “we anticipated and planned for much worse,” he said.
“It was still five plus inches of rain in the course of just a couple hours,” Florsheim said.
There was flooding on Lee Street, and Millbrook and Randolph roads in front of the South Fire station. By Thursday morning, it had all receded, Trzaski said.
In Middletown, officials are in the process of taking stock of how bad flooding is on private property, said Florsheim, who added that damage assessment is done on a state- and county-wide level to determine eligibility for FEMA support.
The mayor has been in discussions with his public works and water and sewer department heads about upgrading the city’s sewer infrastructure since Middletown received millions in American Rescue Plan funding, a portion of which will fund the work.
“There will be another storm, and another and another. The impact of climate change is not the future, but the present,” Florsheim said. “This is what that looks like.
“We have been dodging bullets left and right. We know we need to come up with a plan for now and long term for infrastructure that currently exists. We have to come up with a climate mitigation strategy on a citywide basis,” the mayor said.
It’s no longer a matter of if significant weather issues will happen — it’s when, he said. “If we are not thoughtful in our preparations. … We don’t want to be in the position of being caught by surprise.”