Ida’s Remnants Flood New Haven

Eleven days after New Haven and Hamden hunkered down for a hurricane that never arrived, the remnants of a different hurricane flooded streets and basements and left hundreds without power.

That surprise wallop came overnight from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, which destroyed swaths of Louisana earlier in the week.

View From New Haven

By the time its remnants swept through New Haven late Wednesday night, it dumped as much as nine inches of water over just three hours through parts of town, according to city emergency management chief Rick Fontana.

“We were inundated. We haven’t seen water like this since Sandy,” Fontana remarked in between coordinating emergency response calls Thursday morning. ​“We had rain everywhere.” (David Duda contributed the above video of Water Street flooding.)

Sent to us about a half hour ago: flooding in a suite housing seven students in the lower level of Pauli Murray College

Via Dylan Carson and Sirven Léon pic.twitter.com/iNk1SyeyQG

— Mackenzie Hawkins (@mackhawk) September 2, 2021

Downed wires left 220 locations without power around New Haven as of 9 a.m. Fontana predicted the power would return by day’s end. All of Yale’s residential colleges lost power, and basements flooded, according to this Yale Daily News account.

Tweed New Haven Airport was flooded and closed, of course. Cars were stuck under the bridge on Middletown and Quinnipiac Avenues, as drivers drove around barricades. Their cars had to be towed; no one had to be personally rescued or got hurt, according to Fontana.

The fire department went to 17 homes to pump basements that had accumulated four to five feet of water, Fontana said. That included homes on Poplar, Clay, Olive, Button, Orchard, and Rosette streets.

The fire department’s truck companies and engine companies have electric sump pumps used in thes jobs. The concern is about furnaces or hot water heaters or electric panels that might be affected by flooding, according to Assistant Chief Justin McCarthy. For instance, older-model hot water heaters have pilot lights that can be extinguished, ​“causing a possible issue.” Or in some low-lying flood-prone areas, electrical outlets may be in the path of flooding. ​“We have had a lot of code changes” to protect against those problems, ​“but we’re an old city, and we still see stuff that pre-dates the changes,” McCarthy said.

Hamden Hit Harder

Many more people lost power in Hamden: 659 out of 27,304 customers (or 2.41 percent of the town) as of 9 a.m. At the peak of the storm, 50 roads were not passable, according to Craig Cesare, the town’s public works director. Eleven town crews were out working.

Cesare personally rescued two drivers stuck on Dixwell Avenue near Dunkin Donuts. United Illuminating is addressing seven or eight downed wires, while the town is dealing with 23 felled trees.

CT Transit advised riders throughout the system to be prepared for service disruptions. ​“Due to the heavy rain and resulting localized street flooding and storm damage, some routes are reporting delays in service or temporary detours” system-wide, it wrote in an email alert. One example: The 206 (east Chapel Street) bus isn’t running on Concord street between Shoreham Road and Morris Causeway, because of a downed tree. Riders can board at Concord and Shoreham or at Lighthouse Road and Townsend Avenue. Meanwhile, Metro-North suspended train service on the New Haven Line.