OXFORD-SEYMOUR — In addition to killing three people, including two women in Oxford, the Aug. 18 floods destroyed 13 houses in New Haven County and six houses in Fairfield County.
Another 170 houses suffered major damage, with an additional 133 houses deemed “inaccessible.”
About 90 percent of the damage happened in areas that were not designated as flood zones — so many homes and business owners do not have flood insurance.
The floods caused an estimated $13 million in damages to Metro-North’s Waterbury train line, and there’s no telling when it will be repaired.
Those are some of the statistics cited by Gov. Ned Lamont in a Sept. 9 letter to President Joe Biden asking the federal government declare a major disaster for Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven counties from the Aug. 18 “extreme flooding.” Click here to read the letter.
The federal declaration could provide some reimbursement money for uninsured private property owners — both residential and commercial.
“People who live in the communities impacted by this historic storm are shaken as many of them have experienced significant damage to their homes and businesses and need support to rebuild and recover,” Lamont said in a prepared statement. “My administration continues to work with the impacted areas to take the steps we need to ensure a speedy and full recovery.”
Lamont’s letter details the freakish nature of the rainstorm, the intensity and duration of which took forecasters by surprise. Click here for a previous Valley Indy story.
“Instead of the one to two inches that were estimated, the peak rainfall exceeded three inches of water per hour, and seven inches in three hours in a band from the Town of Monroe in Fairfield County to the Town of Oxford in New Haven County,” Lamont wrote.
Three local rivers hit the major flood stages — the Little River, the Housatonic and the Naugatuck. Some 16 inches of rain fell in parts of the region.
Lamont’s letter mentions the tragic deaths of two women in Oxford, and the third death of a man who was apparently swept from his truck in the Fairfield-Westport area.
The governor also mentions that 13 of the 17 businesses at the Klarides Village shopping center on Route 67 in Seymour suffered serious flood damage. In all, 77 businesses in the area suffered major damage from the storm, according to the letter.
The push for declaring the area a “major disaster” is supported by Connecticut’s federal delegation.
That includes U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, along with U.S. Reps. Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro, Jahana Hayes, Jim Hines and John Larson. Click here to read their letter.
They say the total preliminary damage estimate is around $206 million. They urge President Biden to act quickly on the declaration.
