BOZRAH, Conn. — The Fitchville Pond Dam in Bozrah is meant to hold back the Yantic River but at 7:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, raging floodwater started flowing around the left side. It created a genuine concern that a catastrophic failure was imminent.
“The left abutment was leaking from this dam. Something we hadn’t seen before,” said Chuck Lee, the Assistant Director of Dam Safety Programs for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
After the problem was identified, mandatory evacuation orders were issued for parts of Norwich and Bozrah as the Yantic River raged a full four feet beyond the critical flood stage. Backyards turned into ponds and basements were transformed into swimming pools.
“Somehow the river overflowed, came right down our driveway, swept through all of this. Ended up in our backyard,” said Eric Connors of Bozrah.\
“It’s just remarkable. People are telling me they’ve never seen the Yantic River as full as it is today. This goes back to the flooding of 1938 and maybe Noah,” said Gov. Ned Lamont, who held a news conference in Bozrah Wednesday.
The Fitchville Pond dam was built in 1840 and then rebuilt in 1880. It is deemed a high-hazard dam, meaning its catastrophic failure would cause loss of life.
“It’s higher than I’ve ever seen it. I’ve lived here for three years and I lived across the street for another three years before that and I’ve never in my life seen the river even touch this level,” described Chris Stone of Bozrah.
The dam breach forced Norwich Public Utilities to shut down an electrical substation, leaving 5,000 residents in the dark for what could be several days.
“It’s very much a minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour situation,” Chris Riley of Norwich Public Utilities. “If we can’t re-energize the substation, is there a way for us to feed from another location a portion of it? We don’t know that yet. We’ve got 5,000 people right now without power wondering if they are going to be able to have a hot meal tonight or take a shower when they get home from work.”
As for the dam itself, we learned it’s privately owned by Seymour Sand and Gravel.
“There’s a history of enforcement action on this dam,” said Lee. Private owners are required to hire a licensed engineer and submit emergency action plans to the state. “This dam does not have an emergency action plan.”
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection last inspected the dam in 2022 when multiple issues were discovered.
“There were problems with the dams. We’ve been monitoring this dam in storms and we keep an eye on it,” said Lee.
State officials said the plan moving forward is to build a second temporary dam in front of the original dam. It will allow engineers to siphon out all the water between the two dams. That will allow crews to be able to access and inspect the structure to determine what permanent repairs are needed.
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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