Residents in the Maples in Shelton and McConney Grove in Derby aren’t surprised when the Housatonic River floods.
Heck, residents at McConney’s are known to crack open a case of Heinekin and throw a flood party every time the Housatonic River spills over its banks and onto their yards.
But not on Thursday, when the Valley was pounded by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee.
After the third major flood in six months, even the heartiest folks along the river were crying, “Enough already.”
“Of course we’re getting frustrated,” said McConney Grove resident David Zitnay. “You live on the water, you expect moderate flooding. You don’t expect this.”
Flood Came Fast
At 6 a.m. Thursday, the forecast from the National Weather Service for the Housatonic River did not call for major flooding. The river was expected to reach 16.3 feet by 2 p.m. The flood stage is 11 feet.
That forecast was very, very wrong.
What happened?
First Light Power Resources, the company that owns the Stevenson Dam, fully extended the flood gates on the dam Thursday morning so the water could not overtake Route 34, which connects Monroe to Oxford over the dam.
At 8 a.m. Thursday, water flow over the Stevenson Dam into the Housatonic River measured 33,000 cubic feet per second.
By 1:16 p.m. Thursday, water flowing over the dam increased to 52,000 cubic feet per second.
Chuck Burnham, a spokesman for First Light Power, said the situation Thursday was caused by Tropical Storm Irene earlier this month and the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, which passed through Connecticut Thursday and stalled over the northeast.
“The ground was already soaked from Irene and the rain we’ve received the last few days. None of that water was sinking into the ground. It flowed right into the river,” Burnham said.
Once water flows like it was Thursday, the Stevenson Dam can’t hold it back, he said.
“The dam structurally cannot ‘hold back’ water once it reaches a certain level,” Burnham said.
“The Tainter (flood) gates were constructed to protect the structure of the dam. They are to be opened to divert the water through (rather than over) the dam during these instances,” he said.
Housatonic Headache
The Housatonic River reached 20.53 feet at 2:45 p.m. Thursday.
Anything above 20 feet is considered “major flood stage.”
That figure is just shy of Hurricane Irene levels of 20.94 feet.
In March, the water reached 21.68 feet — the fifth highest level on record.
To put the flooding in perspective: Homes in the Maples section of Shelton start getting water at 11.5 feet. In the Riverside neighborhood of Oxford, water starts coming inside homes at about 9.5 feet.
Shelton issued a mandatory evacuation of the Maples neighborhood at 3 p.m. Click here to read about their efforts to bring people to dry land.
In Derby and Oxford, residents were asked to voluntarily leave Thursday afternoon — and several did.
Watch this video to hear how Charles Chancio, 21, of 567 Roosevelt Drive in Oxford, dealt with the flood. Article continues below.
At 5 p.m. Thursday, Shelton officials were worried a dam on the Houstatonic River in New Milford might overflow, sending even more water down river.
“They’re having problems at Rocky River (power station). A large tree is caught up in the flashboards,” said Shelton’s Director of Emergency Management John Millo. “There’s a possibility, it’s remote, that the boards won’t hold.”
However, by 11 p.m. Thursday the Housatonic River was receding in New Milford, but still well above its flood stage, according to the National Weather Service.
Sucker Punch
While the Maples section of Shelton often floods, the speed and intensity of the Thursday’s flood took residents by surprise.
Maples resident Brian Johnson was ready to throw in the towel.
“The house is definitely going on the market,” he said.
Johnson said he wants to take out a real estate ad in the New York Times for waterfront property in Fairfield County.
“I’ll even include the boat,” he said.
Karen Hanson, of the Maples, would like to move, but said she can’t because her property has been permanently damaged by the flooding.
“I can’t sell my house. It’s worthless,” Hanson said.
Others said there was no amount of water that would force them out.
“The neighbors here are accustomed to it, and have taken measures to adapt,” said Fred Anthony, who moved into his home at the Maples just two months ago. “Am I going to be inconvenienced for a couple of days? Yeah. But you get the river the rest of the year,” Anthony said.
In The Middle
Three Valley neighborhoods sit between the Stevenson Dam and the lower Ousatonic Dam (known as the Derby Dam):
- The Riverside neighborhood of Oxford
- McConney Grove in Derby
- The Maples in Shelton.
Parts of Seymour are on the river, too, but at slightly higher elevations.
First Light owns the Stevenson Dam in Oxford. McCallum Enterprises owns the Derby Dam.
Several residents along the Housatonic were annoyed Thursday with the operators of the two dams. Residents want more communication between the owners and better control of the water levels between the two dams.
Hanson, who was leaving the Maples Thursday with her dog, Tigin, blamed the flooding on the practices of the power generating companies.
“This is not happening because of mother nature,” Hanson said. “This is not a case of stupid people living on the river.”
She said the flash boards on the Derby Dam appear to be higher than they should be, and don’t appear to drop to let water out as they should. She said she monitors them regularly.
“I’m frustrated and angry,” Hanson said. “We are between two dams. The dam above us lets water go, but the dam below us does not let it out.”
Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri also questioned whether the Derby Dam was operating properly. Repairs were made to the dam after the historic March 7 flood earlier this year.
Blame Mother Nature
Joseph Szarmach Jr., a representative for McCallum Enterprises, came to the Maples Thursday afternoon, while firefighters and EMS workers were helping people leave their homes.
He tried to explain to residents that the Derby Dam is not to blame.
“We’ve been trying to get water out as fast as we can,” Szarmach said. “Mother nature is dumping too much.”
Like FirstLight Power, Szarmach said there’s only so much you can do when this much rain falls. The last two weeks have seen 6 to 8 inches of rain fall in the lower Naugatuck Valley alone, according to the National Weather Service.
“It’s a phenomenal amount of rain,” Szarmach said.
Federal Help?
Residents and local officials want to know whether FirstLight Power could lower the water level at lakes they own north of the Stevenson Dam. Doing so could alleviate flooding, which is becoming constant, residents said.
In Oxford, local elected officials have been talking to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. Jim Himes to change federal energy regulations that would allow First Light to drain more water from Lake Zoar and Lake Lillinonah above the dam.
Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri also wants to reach out to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Blumenthal to talk about the flooding problems.
“We need the power of the federal government to fix this,” Staffieri said Thursday.
First Selectwoman Mary Ann Drayton-Rogers held a meeting with First Light officials and residents along the Housatonic River earlier this summer to talk about the water level and what the company could do during floods.
“The meeting was called because we wanted to address concerns we were hearing from the residents below the Stevenson Dam,” Drayton-Rogers said. “Their concerns were that it seemed as if the water levels were higher and the flooding situations were more frequent and greater than they had been in the past.”
Burnham, the First Light spokesman, said the company doesn’t generate more electricity when water rages through the floodgates. He also said lowering the lakes above the dam isn’t as helpful as people think.
Lowering lakes too quickly triggers floods. Weather forecasts are always changing. There’s usually not enough time to lower the lakes, he said.
“One the lakes fill up, the flood is coming no matter what we do,” Burnham said.
The company did manage to lower the lakes as Hurricane Irene made its way up the East Coast earlier this month.
“People tend to think we’re letting the water go down just to flood people out. That’s not true at all,” Burnham said . “These are hydroelectric dams — not flood control structures. We don’t really have the ability to control the flooding at a certain point. The Stevenson Dam is not built like the Hoover Dam, where you can block water.”
