SEYMOUR, Conn. — As Seymour still recovers from last week’s historic storm, the town is getting ready for its first day back to school on Wednesday, Aug. 28.
“This has devastated our beginning in a way that hasn’t happened in many years in Seymour; never like this,” said Dr. Susan Compton, superintendent of Seymour Public Schools.
Several inches of rain fell within hours on Aug. 18, destroying more than a dozen local businesses and several homes. That includes the shops in and around Klarides Village Plaza.
RELATED: Seymour small business owners face an uncertain future following heavy flooding at Klarides Village
“That has impacted everyone and also the employees that are in those stores and businesses because some of those are our parents,” Compton said.
Compton said in terms of the damage to homes, one family has been displaced and is being taken care of when it comes to housing and school transportation plans.
While the damage to the area has been extensive, Compton said the school buildings are all intact, and she doesn’t expect any changes to bus routes.
“We’re going to do the best we can tomorrow for opening day. That’s the most important day of the year,” Compton said.
However, because of the road closures in the area, many staff members will have a much longer commute to work.
“So, it’s impacting their travel for both our administrators and staff, about an additional hour on their journey, which normally would take 30 minutes is now going to take over an hour,” Compton said.
Following the storm, Compton said she sent an email to staff members, with the following message.
“I just said, ‘Be careful, be careful. We care about you. Because with your transition of taking different routes, you’re probably going to have to leave much earlier than usual and if something happens, you get caught in traffic, then do not rush, you’ll get here when you get here,’” Compton said.
“To get through Seymour, you have to go down a state road. Seymour is full of state roads… 67, 313, 34 - those are the main ones that go through us, and 34 was affected, and 67 was affected,” said Annmarie Drugonis, Seymour’s First Selectwoman.
At this time, Drugonis said all but one local road (which happens to be a state road) is passable, and the decision to bring the kids back to school was an important one.
“As long as our roads were passable, our local roads, which they are, we were going on with school no matter what,” Drugonis said. "Our kids are going back to school, so there’s a normalcy for them, which is a great thing because we want our kids to feel the normalcy.”
Yet neighboring communities, like Oxford, have not been as lucky and have had to delay the start of the school year until after Labor Day.
“We have 16 businesses out, 10 families, homes who are affected by this. I don’t want to say we’re blessed, but we were blessed. Because we did not receive the damages that Oxford, Monroe, Newtown have all received,” Drugonis said.
Compton said she and Oxford’s superintendent are colleagues and work together often. She said she the two have been in talks about sharing facilities and parking lots, if necessary. They’re also considering consolidating bus routes for the nearby tech schools.
“I think we’re going to be okay. We’ve totally been blessed. But our neighbors have not been,” Compton said. “We’re just excited for a new year. But we’re also, we’re going to have to work with our neighbors, especially Oxford.”
For Seymour’s first day, both Compton and Drugonis are recommending that those traveling to work and school on Wednesday give themselves a lot of extra time.
Drugonis said she sent a "red alert," informing the community about the anticipated backups on Tuesday.
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Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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