Jan. 17—NORWICH — One week after near-record flooding, city leaders say they must quickly quantify the storm damage, plan to better secure critical utility equipment and improve the warning system for residents and businesses in the Yantic River floodway.
The City Council on Tuesday night heard an hourlong debriefing from city leaders and emergency response staff on last week’s Yantic River flooding and addressed ideas for future flood prevention and warnings.
On Jan. 10, the Yantic River quickly rose to 14.23 feet, just 7 inches below its record. The river flooded large portions of Yantic, Bean Hill and Norwichtown. The city ordered a mandatory evacuation of homes and businesses along a wide swath of the Yantic River flood zone after a leak was discovered in the Fitchville Pond Dam upstream in Bozrah.
As homeowners and businesses continue to clean up, City Manager John Salomone said the city must immediately quantify its costs incurred by the Jan. 24 deadline imposed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Salomone said no city streets or bridges were heavily damaged by the floodwater.
FEMA announced Tuesday that President Joe Biden has approved the state’s request for a natural disaster declaration for New London County. FEMA will set up a local recovery office to take applications from businesses and residents seeking federal assistance. Salomone said he will request that the office be located in Norwich.
Norwich Community Development Corp. President Kevin Brown said his agency identified 32 businesses that were either damaged or disrupted by the storm. NCDC is working with the Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region and state Department of Economic and Community Development to provide micro-grants to help businesses pay for immediate repairs or small costs to reopen quickly. Major financial assistance through FEMA and the federal Small Business Administration will come later.
Norwich Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director Tracy Montoya told the council Tuesday that Jan. 10 was the first time the emergency phone message system was used to order an evacuation. He said it took more than 30 minutes to craft the message, as officials needed to determine the area threatened by the potential failure of the Bozrah dam.
Montoya said the groundwork is now in place so that any future message could be distributed within five minutes. A second heavy rainstorm hit the region Friday night, and Norwich sent a second emergency message warning residents in the same area of the potential for a second evacuation order overnight Friday if emergency dam repairs did not hold. The order was not needed, Montoya said.
Montoya added that confusion over the condition and status of the Fitchville Pond Dam continued even days after the storm. Media reports varied, reporting the dam leak, a breach and even failure of the dam. Montoya stressed that the dam had a leak, not a breach, and did not cause the Norwich flooding. The heavy rain and rapidly melted snow overwhelmed the riverbank.
Norwich Public Utilities General Manager Chris LaRose said the Bean Hill power substation on Connecticut Avenue quickly became surrounded by water Jan. 10. Utility workers had to be dropped off at the station using a payloader, as roads were blocked, LaRose said.
Water seeped through sealed walls at the substation, LaRose said. Crews used sandbags and frantically tried to keep water from the critical equipment, even drilling a hole in the substation platform to allow water to drain into the basement, “something we haven’t seen in the past,” LaRose told the City Council.
The flooding, along with concerns about the integrity of the Fitchville Pond Dam, prompted NPU to shut down the substation, cutting power to 5,000 customers. Had the power equipment been inundated while fully operating, it would have caused catastrophic damage costing millions of dollars to repair.
In 2023, NPU received a $1.1 million grant from the state to shore up the Bean Hill substation and a sewer pumping station on Shipping Street, LaRose said. The $650,000 for the Bean Hill substation will be used for new walls and other measures to keep the station watertight and above flood levels.
Another NPU concern is a major water transmission line beneath Fitchville Road that runs directly past the Fitchville Pond Dam. LaRose said NPU has updated its emergency plan to divert water from other transmission lines if the Bozrah water line fails or must be taken offline.
“The dam leakage has caused some potential undermining of the pipe, and we’re working on getting that remedied,” LaRose said. “We can’t really dig with the dam in a compromised position. And we also don’t want to cause any harm by disturbing something that’s there now.”
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