State officials held a press briefing at the state Capitol Monday, one day after heavy rains caused flooding in parts of southern Connecticut.
“We had dozens of roads and bridges that were temporarily closed due to the flooding,” said Laoise King, deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation. “Some of those include Route 1, I-95 in Greenwich for a short period of time, and the Merritt Parkway between Westport and Fairfield.”
“We also experienced flooding along some of our rail lines,” King said. “Some train stations were flooded, and areas of track were underwater, which did cause some travel delays yesterday. As of this morning, all state roads have reopened, and all rail operations have resumed and are on time.”
Gov. Ned Lamont said floods also forced the temporary closure of Tweed New Haven Airport on Sunday. The governor said Connecticut must deal with the realities of a warming climate.
“We have to plan and rebuild to… take into account the severity of what's happening to us right now,” Lamont said.
Emma Cimino, acting commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, also highlighted the climate change aspect of flooding disasters.
“Climate-induced extreme rainfall is increasing, even without a comparable increase in annual rainfall,” Cimino said. “And as we’ve heard, as we’ve seen, when intense rain falls quickly, local drainage systems, roads, streams and other infrastructure can be overwhelmed.”
“We need to invest in resilience. We need to invest in our infrastructure. We also need to ensure that we're doing what we can to prevent the worst impacts of climate change,” Cimino said.
Bill Turner, Connecticut’s emergency management director, said Sunday’s flooding resulted in no known injuries or fatalities, but that first responders around the state performed “dozens” of water rescues. According to the Bridgeport Fire Department, their personnel performed somewhere between 30 and 40 rescues in their city alone.
Turner said the state was seeking residents’ reports of damage from Sunday’s flooding, which could help Connecticut qualify for federal disaster aid.
“We know that people had flooded homes. We know their basements are flooded. They may have lost belongings. They may be displaced and not have insurance,” Turner said. “Our main message today is that if you have damages related to this storm that occurred on September 13th, related to the flooding, please report those damages.”
Reports can be submitted at the Connecticut Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security website.
