Irene Causes Floods, Knocks Down Trees
By Robin Vinci at September 2, 2023 | 9:30 am | Print
It was around 6:45 a.m. Sunday morning when several New Britain residents heard the first sounds of Hurricane Irene.
“We heard a big boom and then the lights went out,” said Ken Williamson. “I thought it was a transformer.”
It turned out to be a huge oak tree that crashed down on the corner of Pendleton St. and Sunnyslope Dr.
“At 6 a.m. we had power and no problems,” said Lora Miller. “By 6:30 a.m. we had no phone or electricity.”
Near Eton St. and Roxbury Road some Central Connecticut State University students had the scare of a lifetime.
A large banging crash occurred in the area at 6:48 a.m.
“It woke me up and I screamed,” said Heather Burleigh. A tree had fallen landing in the road and on a neighbor’s car.
“The tree fell and I jumped out of bed and looked out the window,” said Kyle Lucas. “A tree limb was through the hood of a car.”
“We started getting calls around 7 a.m. that trees and lines were coming down,” said Mark Moriarty, public works director, who had a staff ready at City Hall to take care of emergencies. “It was chaotic. There were 65 locations where trees or power lines were reported down.”
The public works department along with police, fire, the parks and recreation department went to areas and placed yellow tape around them so no one would enter and get injured.
The biggest problem came as a substation went down just off Farmington Avenue cutting off power for 5,000 people including several high rise buildings holding a large number elderly and disabled people.
“The EMS ran into problems trying to remove people from the fifth and sixth floors without electricity,” said Moriarty. “CL&P responded very quickly and got those people back on line as fast as possible.”
For others, the storm damage came through flooded basements and the loss of power.
CL&P Monday reported 10,573 residences in New Britain were without power. Nearly 750,000 across Connecticut were without power.
“We’ve never had as many people out of power (in Connecticut) as we’ve had with this storm,” said Gov. Dannel Malloy.
All power was back on in New Britain by the end of the day on Wednesday.
The first day of school had been canceled Monday, but did occur on Tuesday.
“In the grand scheme of things we fared pretty well. There are still a number of people without power including Slade and Lincoln Schools, but it should be restored by this evening,” said Mayor Timothy Stewart on Monday morning. “Minor flood damage and a few dozen trees fell but we seemed to be lucky the destruction was not worse.”
Flooding included the Willow Brook Park parking lot, the Willow Brook Park playground, a high stream level at the brook and the Stanley Golf Course who saw the ninth tee under water. At the A.W. Stanley Park, water was high reaching the playground area and Martha Hart Pond saw water encroaching the street.
Trees on Pendleton and Roxbury Roads were not the only ones down.
Maplehurst had an 80 foot tree uprooted around 7 a.m.; Stanley Quarter Park and Walnut Hill Park each had a fallen tree; Stanley Street saw various trees down and some were hanging over power lines which were cut down by CL&P crews on Sunday night.
A tree had reportedly fallen on a house and was quickly removed on Elbridge St., while Kensington Road near Clinic Drive was closed down due to a large tree in the middle of the road.
On Ella Grasso Boulevard a pole fell down closing the east bound portion of the road near CCSU.
Various power lines were down including one on Farmington Ave. across from Aldi’s, and one on each end of Linwood Streets.
Police immediately advised residents to stay off the streets and out of harm’s way.
At the Hospital of Central Connecticut all went well.
“We kept power at both campuses (although we do have generators if we need them),” said Nancy Martin, senior public relations specialist. “Everything went smoothly – we were well staffed and able to take care of our patients without interruption.”
Although some damage and wide outages came with the storm, many residents felt it was not as big as predicted.
“Other than the tree and being wet, the weather wasn’t that bad,” said Williamson.
“It was really no big deal,” said Keith Mehmet.
“I think New Britain dodged a bullet,” said Jim Wyskiewicz. “Other than some fallen trees and loss of power, it could have been a lot worse.”
Others felt it was worse than storms in the past.
“I remember Gloria in ‘85, but this is unbelieveable,” said Tina Santana. “There is such a massive loss of power, and no end in sight. The timing is off, no idea when our children can get to school as we have no hot water to bathe them in!”
The storm left over a million across the northeast without power, but never increased in intensity over a category 2. In 9 states, at least 38 deaths were associated to the storm.
By the time the brunt of it hit Connecticut Sunday, it had been downgraded to a Tropical Storm.
The city was prepared to open the senior center on Pearl Street and the Police Athletic League building on Osgood Avenue as emergency shelters during Hurricane Irene if it had been needed. Several people used the Senior Center for one night.
City sweepers cleaned up streets on Tuesday to remove debris and keep the City as clean as possible.
