Region starts mopping up mess left by storm

Most of the time, firefighters pump water into a house. But all day Sunday, they were pumping water out of a red house on North Stonington Road in Old Mystic that had been overtaken by Whitford Brook, which feeds into the Mystic River.

"We got her sandbagged up, all the doors, all the windows," said Chief Ken Richards of the Old Mystic Fire Department, which conveniently is located just next door to the flooding. "When the town got here this morning to shut down the road, they saw that the water was already around the cars and when we got here, the water was up to the first floor already."

By midday Sunday, the first floor of the home owned by Leslie Dwyer was drained, but water remained in the basement, where Richards said the new furnace had been irreparably damaged. His men, donning waders and rubber boots, pumped water away from the brook and into a nearby storm drain.

Many similar scenes unfolded across the region, where municipal crews, firefighters and utility workers labored to remove downed power lines and fallen trees that blocked roads and pump out flooded basements caused by the strong winds and the 4 to 5 inches of rain that fell Saturday night and Sunday.

In some areas, such as the Oneco section of Sterling where an entire neighborhood was cut off from the rest of the village, floodwaters prevented cars from driving on certain roads. Beach areas, such as Misquamicut where huge waves rolled in all day, are sure to see beach erosion. Downed trees, meanwhile, will keep private tree service firms busy for days.

"There's a lot of trees down, a lot of power lines down," said Stonington First Selectman Ed Haberek, who spent Sunday morning surveying the damage and cleanup efforts. "It's just a lot of general storm issues to clean up. We've had a public works crew out all night, trying to take care of the cleanup."

Numerous roads across the region were closed, with flooding shutting down parts of Willetts, Blydenburg and Glenwood avenues in New London, while felled trees and power lines causing police to divert traffic off parts of Route 1 in Groton.

In Norwich, the Yantic River crested at about 3 p.m., according to the National Weather Service, reaching a depth of 10.6 feet, about 2 feet above the riverbanks. The flooding did not cause major problems, officials said.

In Stonington, police shut down North Stonington Road in Old Mystic and part of Lantern Hill Road near the Ledyard border, both areas where streams had crested their banks and overtaken bridges.

From Saturday night into Sunday morning, the storm knocked down power lines across the region, leaving thousands without power.

The hardest-hit areas were Waterford, where 854 customers were without power Sunday morning, followed by New London with 735 and Groton with 728. Stonington, meanwhile, had an additional 238 without power. Statewide, CL&P reported as many as 88,000 outages Sunday, concentrated mostly in the southwestern part of the state.

As the day progressed, power was restored to some customers, though work progressed at a snail's pace. By 9 p.m. Sunday, some 63,500 customers statewide were still without power. Things had not improved in New London where 738 customers were still in the dark, three more than the morning. Things were slightly better in Groton where there were 567 outages, Waterford with 390 and Stonington with 269.

Former New London City Councilor Reid Burdick said he made several calls to CL&P Sunday trying to find out why no crews were in the city making repairs. He said CL&P told him there were other priorities across the state and it might be until Tuesday for some city customers to get their power back.

Burdick, who was without power at his home Sunday night, said two crews were finally in the city Sunday night.

"In the past they've done a good job. They've always had at least one crew here," he said, adding he hopes power will be back today.

The storm was substantially more brutal in southwestern Connecticut, where the Red Cross opened shelters in Norwalk, Fairfield and Westport for people displaced by flooding or left without electricity.

Governor M. Jodi Rell activated the state's Emergency Operations Center in Hartford on Saturday night and monitored the response to the damage on Sunday.

She said utility companies were doing all they could and are getting assistance from out of state crews "but they still face a monumental task."

Rell also asked motorists in the Stamford, Norwalk and Greenwich area to stay off the roads if possible and to avoid areas where trees are down and power is out. She said in the coming days her administration would be working with the cities and towns to see if some of the storm expenses could be reimbursed by Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The storm also forced the Stonington Shellfish Commission to close conditional shellfish areas "A", "B" and Outer Quiambaug Cove to the harvesting of clams, oysters and mussels for a minimum of seven days. Call (860) 599-7575 to determine when the areas will reopen.

m.collette@theday.com

j.wojtas@theday.com.