PORTLAND, Conn. — Federal, state and local officials discussed possible support for Jobs Pond homeowners in Portland Wednesday as residents are watching their livelihoods get washed away by water.
Residents say a state of emergency should be declared to free up funding and cut through governmental red tape.
“It’s heartbreaking to see it like this,” said Ellen Mantel.
Ellen Mantel and her 89-year-old mother Evelynn Mantel are confronting the possibility of relocation at their multi-generational family cottage on Jobs Pond.
“Finding some other place to stay. Hopefully we can locate some places. My brother is already making space at his house in Cromwell for my mom in the event that she has to move out,” said Ellen Mantel.
Ellen Mantel plans to renovate a home next door to live next to her mother. It is besieged by water.
Upstairs in the home, Ellen Mantel said that she had her "oil tank, my hot water heater and my mother’s freezer and my heat pump". The damage was worse downstairs.
“I’ve got a flotilla of sandbags right now. The water is up to the windows and you can see it outside,” Ellen said. “At this point I’m holding my breath that my furnace doesn’t float away. We’ve tried to encapsulate it in rubber.”
Hours later came what they hope is a literal lifeline.
“We are going to explore whatever resources are available,” stated Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Blumenthal was joined by state and local officials to survey the situation. They committed to communication.
“I can tell you I am going to personally call Ned Lamont as we leave here,” said Blumenthal.
Residents are already living on borrowed time and they say that the time for talk is over. They need a fix. Short term, that likely means pumping water over a mile into the Connecticut River. Teams from the USDA are calculating the cost.
“Our timeframe is two weeks on that to get the request to headquarters. I have a flame under them,” explained Tom Morgart from the USDA.
In regard to a long term solution, Morgart said that "we have a program where, for homes that are repeatedly flooded, we can buy people out of their home, demolish it and restore it to another use.”
Morgart said they are hoping to avoid that scenario by installing some sort of underground piping to prevent the pond from this catastrophic flooding.
Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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