Seymour Fire Chief/Emergency Management Director Chris Edwards at the Sept. 3 Selectpersons meeting.
SEYMOUR – The town’s fire chief and emergency management director said 26 homes and 16 businesses were damaged during the Aug. 18 rainstorm that produced flash flooding in the area. An estimated $455,000 in damage was caused to Seymour’s roads and infrastructure.
“I’ve never seen water do destruction like it did on Aug. 18,” Chris Edwards told members of the Seymour Board of Selectpersons on Tuesday (Sept. 3).“We’re in the recovery phase now.”
Edwards said the 15 inches of rain that fell undermined roads, uprooted sidewalks, caused damage to a privately-owned dam, and dumped five feet of water into basements. There were more than 100 emergency calls during the storm.
Seymour, like surrounding towns, are compiling detailed damage lists with the hope Connecticut qualifies for a major federal disaster declaration, a designation that could bring federal aid to reimburse property owners and local governments.
“The town itself has infrastructure damage of $455,000,” Edwards said. “I uploaded all that with photos to FEMA’s website. We still have to look at riverbanks and our long-term recovery and once everything dries out, we could be looking at sinkholes, too.”
Edwards said while it was the Little River that flooded, the Naugatuck River also took on some damage. He said there’s dumpsters and other debris still washing up on its riverbanks. State environmental officials are dealing with the waterways.
The $455,000 estimate, Edwards said, includes:
*Repairs to broken sewer pipes and dam on Mill Street which runs behind Allen’s Plumbing Supply
*Repairs to sidewalks that became uprooted on and dislodged on Old Drive, as well as road repairs to Old Drive
*Some equipment for public works to do prep work and repairs
*Overtime payroll for police and public works
*Emergency removal of some trees that were hanging over Little River
Edwards said the Mill Street repairs alone, which included sewer pipe repairs and backfilling the privately-owned dam known as Wire Mill Dam No. 2, cost $237,000. The town is working to recoup the $25,000 in the dam repairs from the private owner.
The path forward for Edwards and town officials includes a lengthy to-do list that follows:
*Continue to meet and work with state and FEMA officials on documenting all the town damage, which Edwards estimates will take at least 12 months.
*Continue to work through paperwork filed by residents and business owners documenting their damage to see what kind of state and federal money they may quality for.
*Ensure the town recoups any money it put out in repairs, including the $25,000 for the privately-owned dam
*Repair town infrastructure back to its normal state
*Crews from the state will begin work on repairs to River Street (state-owned Route 313) this week. The road is a cut-through road to Route 67 and Derby Avenue. Repairs are expected to be complete the first week of October, he said.
Of the 26 residences impacted by the flooding, Edwards said only two homeowners had flood insurance. He said the majority of homes hit the hardest were on Woodside Avenue and Derby Avenue, with flooded basements, roof and gutter damage and more.
Of the 16 businesses impacted, 14 still remain closed. Edwards said none carried flood insurance. The majority of the businesses that bore the brunt of the flooding were in the Klarides Village Plaza on Route 67. Just three businesses in the plaza are currently open: Wells Fargo Bank, Elite Fitness and Karaku sushi restaurant.
Allen’s Plumbing Supply, which is located on Route 67, just east of the plaza, is also open, after sustaining about $500,000 in estimated damage and lost inventory, Edwards said.
Seymour Police Chief John Bucherati thanks emergency responders who worked around the clock during the storm and in the days afterward.
“Everyone had to make a lot of decisions that night in a short period of time, and I do believe they (our emergency responders) saved a lot of lives,” Bucherati said.
