SOUTHBURY, Conn. — Southbury was one of Connecticut’s hardest hit communities following Sunday’s torrential rain, with about 1,100 residents still without power Monday.
Some of the town's businesses remained closed and some residents were still stranded. The flooding washed out roads and knocked down trees and power lines.
On Georges Hill Road, the raging water of the nearby Kettletown Brook undermined the structure of the road, eroded the banks and caused the surface of the road to collapse.
“A once-in-a-lifetime flood, I think, happened down here in Southbury,” said Marie McColgan, a town resident.
As a result, Southbury is dealing with damage to key infrastructure that, in some cases, took generations to build and was washed away in just hours.
The town was in damage assessment and cleanup mode Monday as daybreak shed light on the devastation.
“You could hear the trees fall one by one and when it finally receded we came out and saw the damage,” said McColgan.
The Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security has a link where residents can self-report damage to their property.
McColgan’s basement is now a swimming pool. Her sump pump failed, her electrical box is underwater, and her oil tank is floating. Yet, she remains more concerned about her neighbors. They had their bridge washed away and are now stranded.
“I don’t know how the crews are going to get here to help those people,” said McColgan.
Down the road, town resident Tom Santella showed the new path Kettletown Brook cut through his backyard. It’s where his neighbor's bridge and an SUV came to rest. A mother and her baby narrowly escaped death as the raging water carried the car half a mile downstream. The water flooded out Santella’s wife’s car.
The Red Cross established a shelter at the Southbury Senior Center in response to the destruction.
“We opened up this shelter overnight,” said Jasmin Franjul of the American Red Cross of Connecticut.
50 people stayed there, including town resident Phil Testa, who said that “they ended up having to take all of us out by boat.”
Just hours earlier, emergency personnel rescued Testa on a boat from the camping area of Kettletown State Park.
“A couple of people were on their way out of the park and watched the bridge fall down 20 feet in front of their car and luckily nobody was on it but from that point we were isolated on an island because that’s the only way in and out of the park,” said Testa.
Southbury is operating under a state of emergency but they are vowing to rebuild brick by brick.
“Hopefully, we will be able to assess a lot of the damage and prioritize how we will go after it,” said First Selectman Jeffrey Manville.
Manville said Gov. Ned Lamont called him personally and gave him a direct line of communication for anything he needed. Manville said he is making a list and will call the governor back in the coming days.
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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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