Officials Remember Damaging Storm of March 2010

With flooding, rainy weather and more spring storms ahead, local emergency managers and responders can't help but think back to last year's March storm that brought hurricane-like winds and damage to Fairfield County.

The March 13-14, 2010, storm was only forecast to bring 40 mph winds but resulted in gusts upwards of 65 mph. It across the county, left and .

"I think anytime you get a storm, you look for your strengths and weaknesses and what you can do to improve on them and how you prepare," said Capt. Sam Arciola of the Westport Police Department, which received 1,700 calls from reported emergencies to power outages during that 48-hour period. "For the most part, we've always prepared well ahead of time and put the proper staffing levels out there and equipment to deal with situations.

New Canaan Assistant Fire Chief Jack Hennessey said residents must be prepared to have no electricity or water for 48 hours because the nature of a regional emergency means CL&P must determine which areas they can get the most people back online sooner. Residents should also be sure to have sump pumps on hand in the event of basement flooding because the fire department doesn't have equipment to pump them out, he said.

Arciola said the timing of this week's rain storms strikes him as an odd coincidence and stark reminder of what last year's March weather brought to the area.

" — it's putting the right people in the right places, making sure mandatory roads are shut down. But, it's rain on top of rain. Almost one year to the day we are experiencing this high amount of rain. It's unusual. The timing is horrible. It seems like March is turning into a monster."

Marc DeFelice, an officer with the New Canaan Police Department and long-time resident, told Patch that basement flooding is often an issue after a lot of rain.

"I think I got lucky, I wasn't working during that storm," DeFelice said of the 2010 storm, adding that most of the issues with rain involve flooded basements. "My advice is to make sure the water is staying out of your basement if you live in a wetlands area.”

REVIEWING THE RESPONSE

Both local and state departments conducted reviews of the storm response. One of the major criticisms of that storm was that the utility companies did not respond quickly enough.

Based on a review by the state Department of Public Utility Control, Connecticut Light & Power recognized that "communications with cities and municipalities on restoration efforts was inadequate," according to its Oct. 26, 2010, report. However, the DPUC also noted that the utility suffered from "continuing inaccuracies in official weather service forecasts."

Darien Emergency Management Director Marc McEwan said some strides have been made regarding communication between local officials and the utility companies. But still, town workers can't clear streets if the utility companies haven't deemed the roads safe and the power lines dead where wires have fallen. And, the utility companies only have so many crews, McEwan said.

"I don't want to make it sound like we fixed everything because that is certainly not the case," McEwan added. "What progress has been made from my end is that anytime there is a forecast of any kind where trees and wires may come down, I get constant communication with the power comopany executives to inform us of what staffing levels they have and who and how many are on call."

PREPARING FOR THE WORST
Mitch Gross, spokesman for CL&P, said the utility company learned a lot from the March storm and has taken numerous steps to improve. Of those efforts, Gross said the company has added 150 employees who serve as town liaisons to the company's storm efforts. Gross said CL&P also continues to upgrade its system and is currently spending $1 million on tree trimming in Norwalk, Greenwich and New Canaan to avoid trees falling on power lines.

If Fairfield County were to experience another March storm this year of the same magnitude, Gross said the utilty's response would be "much quicker and much stronger."

Fire Chief Christopher Ackley of the Westport Fire Department said time will tell because CL&P response is the Achilles' heel of town restoration. Without them, the firefighters can't do their jobs.

"I think (CL&P) has been more responsive but on a bigger event like that March storm, that was an overwhelming issue," he said. "I think to see if they gear up sooner, time will tell. The cooperation has improved. It was never that bad, it was just getting resources into town in a timely fashion."

As for the residents, Ackley said they should prepare themselves to be without power in the event of another storm.

In terms of local restoration, Ackley said residents should not expect the same level of service they have had in the past due to budget constraints that don't allow for as much overtime.

"We will have to prioritize the  incidents and deal with them as best we can," he said. "They will be incident and response appropriate."