State officials are appealing to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, for help recovering from a May 15 storm, which caused widespread damage in Fairfield, Litchfield, and New Haven counties.
A spokesperson for the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection said Tuesday the state formally requested FEMA to come out and conduct a preliminary damage assessment beginning next Monday.
Depending on how that goes, the assessment could trigger federal reimbursement for cleanup work done on some public and private lands.
Four tornadoes touched down during the May storm, which caused widespread power outages and damage to private and public lands.
Hamden Mayor Curt Balzano Leng said the town of Hamden is facing about $2 million in storm-related repair work. He said dozens of private homes in town have also been heavily damaged.
“Right now we have about six houses that have been deemed uninhabitable and we actually had to ask people to leave them because they were unsafe,” Leng said.
Leng said residents should call the town’s building inspector for a free inspection if they believe their home suffered storm-related damage.
Meanwhile, three state parks remained closed because of the storm -- Kettletown in Southbury, Sleeping Giant in Hamden, and Wharton Brook on the Wallingford North Haven line.
