WOLCOTT -- An early dose of winter weather snarled traffic, and caused widespread commuting problems across the state Thursday.
But Friday was all about digging out. Wolcott was where some saw the highest snow totals. They got about 10 inches, although it didn't look like that after a day of melting.
Start your snowblower engines, or use a little elbow grease on the shovel. Hibernating neighborhoods came alive Friday to a surprising amount of snow. Page Cipriano of Wolcott wasn’t ready for it.
“No. I didn’t think it was going to be as much as we actually got.”
People descended on driveways to begrudgingly get the job done.
“This is not how I want to spend my day off,” said Cipriano.
Wolcott’s DPW Director, David Kalinowski said there is definitely no days off for plow drivers.
“It was like a blizzard the way it started off.” Kalinowski told FOX61 it can be a thankless job. “Our guys put in 26 hours but it’s the day before preparation where the guys don’t sleep at night because they are worried about their plow route,” he said.
Wolcott Schools were closed too.
“This is an early start,” said Wolcott Schools Superintendent Dr. Anthony Gasper. “But our crews did a great job cleaning up today.”
It was wet the heavy stuff that turned to slush in the mid-day sun. We spotted a few dead mailboxes and downed street signs, but overall people here are hopeful this early season.
Relief could be on the way to flood prone Milford neighborhood
MILFORD -- There should be no surprise that Thursday's vicious early winter storm caused serious flooding, in Milford's Bayview Beach neighborhood. But, residents might be surprised with the city's response.
With the wind direction during the storm piling up water in Long Island Sound, the streets were overcome with sand and water until mid afternoon Friday. But, residents may soon notice some changes.
"I might as well get a canoe instead of a car," said one longtime resident of the Bayview Beach neighborhood, which so frequently floods.
And this flooding, which the Department of Public Works said reach three feet deep in the streets, comes just two weeks after what residents said was an even worse flood.
"It (car) was parked all the way up that road, past the telephone pole, and it was completely submerged and now I don’t have a car," said Samantha Pepe.
But, she and a friend were rather resourceful in figuring how to get to work today.
"Now we are just about to go off-roading in the Jeep for the first time behind people's houses, in the sand, in their backyards so that we can maybe find a street that’s not flooded over on the other side," said Dani Solati of Milford.
But, the city said they're about to address the drainage issues.
"I mean, every year they come down, they look at it and they say they’re going to fix it," said a longtime resident of Bayview Beach, Marie Shuster. I’m telling you, I’m here 52 years. It hasn’t happened yet."
But, Milford has received a Department of Housing community development block grant to finally act.