SLICK ROADS, CLOSED SCHOOLS
Icy weather causes disruptions around the Danbury area Wednesday morning
Road conditions were icy Wednesday morning in the Danbury area after freezing rain caught some off guard, causing changes to school plans and disruption of plenty of commutes.
The state struggled to treat the roads because it was too cold Tuesday night to apply liquid pre-treatment and too windy Wednesday morning to pre-treat with hard salt, according to the Department of Transportation. That led to, in many cases, schools being canceled. Some, including New Milford, initially called for a delay and then canceled, prompting children on the bus to school to be brought back home before getting the day started.
“The timing of the weather was terrible,” Brookfield First Selectman Tara Carr said. “Everybody was already kind of up and moving and it went from not great to worse in a small fraction of time.”
Officials said Interstate-84, as
well as routes 58, 302 and 58 and local roads were in bad condition in the morning. Several crashes were reported throughout the area. Due to crashes on I-84, drivers diverted onto local roads in Danbury, “bringing the area to a standstill,” Mayor Dean Esposito said in a Facebook post where he described streets as “very slippery.”
By early Wednesday afternoon, the weather had warmed and conditions had improved. Drivers no longer bypassed I-84.
“Things are pretty clear out there right now,” Eposito said around 12:15 p.m.
Earlier in the day, Danbury police were “inundated” with calls about fender benders, he said. Traffic made it harder for city trucks to get around, but public works crews “did everything possible to keep traffic moving,” he said.
In Newtown, at least two town trucks crashed due to icy conditions, said Capt. Steve Osmolik from the Dodgington Volunteer Fire Company. One of the trucks crashed into a utility pole on Plumtrees Road around 7:30 a.m., he said.
The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection were called to mitigate hazards, Osmolik said. He expected the road to be closed all day for that work and to replace the pole.
Osmolik said volunteers underestimated the storm.
“We didn’t expect it this severely,” he said.
Anticipating a smaller storm, volunteers didn’t put chains on the wheels of their vehicles until the morning, he said.
“This one hit last minute,” Osmolik said. “We didn’t think it would be this bad.”
Dodgington fire had responded to about nine accidents as of around 10:30 a.m., but he said he’s heard of others in Newtown, including on I-84.
“It’s kind of challenging because some of our members have crashed this morning trying to respond,” Osmolik, said.
About five volunteers are working, with three out of commission because they crashed, he said.
“It’s unfortunate people don’t like to stay off the roads,” Osmolik said. “We risk our lives for it.”
Fast-moving storm
Danbury’s public services superintendent tracked weather conditions “all night long,” but the storm was still tough to predict, Esposito said.
“The storm came in so quickly,” he said.
Crews were called around 5 a.m. to treat the roads with a salt mixture, Esposito said. Around 7:30 a.m., the roads froze again, so crews applied a second mixture, he said.
A few employees were out due to COVID-19, “but they did provide adequate amount of staffing out there this morning,” Esposito said.
Ridgefield’s director of public works told crews at about 8 or 9 p.m. Tuesday to be on the roads the next day at 4 a.m., First Selectman Rudy Marconi said.
Town crews even assisted the state by salting state roads in town, he said.
“We know they (state roads) comprise a great part of our transportation system,” Marconi said. “Safety is No. 1, so when our trucks were out there, our director of public works said ‘Don’t wait. Get them done.’”
Police communicated with the highway department about icy spots, he said.
“The roads were all in very, very good shape quite early,” Marconi said.
Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker said his town was in “pretty good shape” around 9:30 a.m. but conditions were “very icy” around 7:30 to 8:30 a.m., when most commuters are on the roads.
Crews in Bethel saw the weather forecast last night and put a mixture of salt and sand on the roads. They were out at 4:30 a.m. with a pre-coating.
“They were loaded up and ready to go this morning,” Knickerbocker said. “But it seems like some other agencies weren’t really prepared, so some of the state roads are icy.”
Aware of the weather forecast, New Fairfield crews started at their regular time of 5 a.m., said First Selectwoman Pat Del Monaco, who was in Town Hall around 9:45 a.m.
“I did not have any trouble getting here, but I do understand there are still some icy patches in town and certainly on some of the major highways around us,” she said.
Officials in New Milford watched the weather forecast and were “very prepared” for the storm, Mayor Pete Bass said. The main part of the storm stayed south of the town, he said.
“We were really aggressively able to put down our materials,” he said.
The Department of Public Works assessed the roads midmorning for any problems, “especially in Gaylordsville and those spotty areas with a little bit higher elevation,” Bass said.
Bridgewater First Selectman Curtis Read said the town’s crew was out at about 4:30 or 5 a.m. salting.
“Our crews were out there before that misting process started on the roads,” he said.
Roads in Bridgewater were still “slick” mid-morning, but overall “good,” he said.
With snow in the forecast Thursday and Friday, Danbury is ready, Esposito said.
“We have an adequate amount of sand and salt that we utilize at this point,” he said. “There’s no problem with the product. This is one of the first storms we’re facing. We’re all prepared for any major storm that comes through, as usual.”
School closures
Most Danbury area school districts closed Wednesday as they continue to struggle with staffing due to COVID, on top of the icy conditions hit the area.
Bethel, Sherman, ER9 and New Fairfield initially posted notices of a two-hour delay Wednesday morning before reverting to full closures. New Milford went from a two-hour delay, to a three-hour delay before canceling instruction around 8:30 a.m.
Initially, some children had already been picked up by local school buses in New Milford before the schools announced their first delay. Officials had decided not to open schools at a normal time after road conditions deteriorated in surrounding towns and I-84 in Southbury closed, especially since many staff could not make it to school because of the weather.
“I contacted All-Star and since road conditions in [New Milford] were still favorable, they were able to bring the children that they had picked up, back home safely,” Superintendent Alisha DiCorpo wrote in an email to Hearst Connecticut. “I did my best to make a call based on the information I had at the time. I was hoping we would be able to hold school today, but it was just not safe to do so.”
Schools across the Danbury area have seen staff absences this week, including 322 missing staff members reported by Danbury Superintendent Kevin Walston on Tuesday.
Danbury schools, which were already been operating on a twohour delay all week to give administrators time to assess staffing, closed Wednesday cited “rapidly changing conditions with staffing and weather.”
The notice on Bethel’s school website also said the decision was made due to “deteriorating icing conditions, highway closures and accidents, and staff's ability to get to work.”