CLINTON - There was angst in one Clinton neighborhood Wednesday because of the washed out bridge.
The bridge, above the Menunketesuck River, was washed out as the raging water rushed over the guard rail’s carrying large debris and even some small boats that had been in the Hatfield Pond several hundred yards upstream.
Late Tuesday evening, following an evacuation order, issued by the Connecticut Water company, Wendy Andrade’s phone rang. It was her 84-year-old mother.
“They are evacuating my house,” Wendy Andrade recalled her mother saying. “They’re knocking at the door. They woke me up out of bed.”
Nima Andrade, who lives in Woods Lane, said man came knocking at the door at around 11:30 and told her she had to evacuate immediately.
“Then, I grabbed as much as I could, but I forgot my medication,” said Noma Andrade.
But, because the bridge washed out, the residents could not be evacuated. So most of the neighborhood, including elderly folks and some 12 children, congregated at a house that is on high ground.
Until the bridge was repaired this morning, Wendy Andrade, who lives a mile from her mom, couldn’t reach her. Making it more stressful: her mother was trying to dry out a basement, that had a foot of water in it, with a mop.
“It’s (river) come up before, but never this high and that stream is a stream. It’s usually ankle deep,” said Wendy Andrade.
Right next-door to Noma Andrade was a home, whose basement was completely inundated with at least three feet of water.
“There was not enough notice for the fire department to get here and get us evacuated,” said Woods Lane reside Heather Toothaker. “We are very lucky that the water didn’t come in higher.”
And flooding is also very visible on a three acre farm at the end of Woods Lane, where Beverly Torell lost a Ford pick up truck and a new Volvo due to the rising water.
Another concern of hers: her horse, a donkey and some chickens. But, fortunately, they are fine because they’re born is on higher ground.
“My hay and my food for them was up in an even higher spot,” said Torell.
And despite vehicles ruined throughout the neighborhood and clear evidence of how high the waters rose, there was a positive take.
“Properties are replaceable, but lives are not,” said Toothaker
Clinton based Connecticut Water, which provides water to residents in Clinton, said the Kelseytown Reservoir, in Killingworth, was rising so rapidly last night that an evacuation order was necessary.