No Records Yet—

Forecasters Hope For Clearing Saturday

By John Voket

Newtown would have to weather almost twice as much rain as residents have already seen this month in order to threaten a record set in 1955, the year devastating floods wreaked havoc in Connecticut’s river valleys. According to reports, drought conditions have helped mitigate the impact of a statewide average of about six inches of rain.

There were some scattered power outages and minor flooding in areas typically affected by any heavy and concentrated precipitation.

In Botsford, volunteer fire crews stood by on Wednesday after a tree branch felled a primary supply electrical line on Washbrook Road. And as The Bee went to press Thursday morning, police had been dispatched to only one other storm-related incident since 9 pm Wednesday, a tree branch down on Toll Bridge Road.

At press time, a flood warning remained in effect. And according to the Associated Press, most of the flooding has occurred in cities and towns near the Connecticut and Housatonic Rivers, including Glastonbury, New Hartford, New Milford, and Portland. Otherwise, officials across the state were monitoring isolated cases where clogged storm drains had caused some urban street flooding.

At 6:20 am Thursday, the National Weather Service reported that the Housatonic River dropped a few inches below its eight-foot flood stage at Gaylordsville overnight, but more rain had moved back into the Housatonic Valley. The river was expected to begin rising again later in the morning and was expected to go above flood around noon Thursday, so the warning will be continued.

The Housatonic was expected to continue rising Thursday and reach around nine feet above flood stage Friday night. Below the Stevenson Dam in neighboring Monroe, the Housatonic River was just below ten feet above flood stage at 4 am as the flow out of the Shepaug Dam was slightly reduced.

It has been raining over this part of the region all night and the Housatonic in that area was also expected to begin rising later Thursday morning. It was expected to reach its 11-foot flood stage shortly after noon and continue rising tonight and Friday.

Forecasters believed the river would likely to be close to 13 feet by Friday evening. In northern Connecticut the Housatonic was expected to continue receding above Bulls Bridge until around noon Thursday.

Across the region, however, the ongoing deluge had taken a toll in human life. Heavy downpours from last weekend have left at least ten people dead from Maine to New Hampshire.

From last Friday evening through Sunday, rainstorms dumped as much as ten inches on New England and the mid-Atlantic states. In New Hampshire, the storm dropped 10.8 inches in Hinsdale, for example. State officials described the floods as the worst in New Hampshire in a quarter-century.

Local governments in Connecticut have been able to handle flooding problems. Wayne Sandford, deputy commissioner of the state Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said state officials have not yet received any requests for help.

“A lot of local fire departments are pumping out a lot of basements. Along some of the rivers where they traditionally receive flooding, the streets are flooded, yards are flooded,” Mr Sandford said. “The good thing is, up to this point, the rapid water has stayed within the boundaries of the streams, creeks, and rivers.”

Newtown Fire Marshal and Emergency Preparedness Director William Halstead was cautiously optimistic Thursday morning. He said his office and local volunteer crews had been checking the Shady Rest and Riverside areas regularly, monitoring the water levels.

“We’ve got some water running up onto lawns but no reports of basement flooding as of yet,” Mr Halstead said. “The waterways affecting us are being controlled at the Stevenson Dam. And they seem to be doing a good job regulating it.”

Meteorologist Gil Simmons and Storm Team 8 at WTNH were looking forward to getting a break this weekend with forecasts Saturday showing clearing and temperatures rising toward 70 degrees by mid-afternoon. Beyond that, forecast models were showing continued clearing with seasonable temperatures in the 60s and the possibility of scattered showers returning either late Monday night and Thursday of next week.