Wednesday marks the anniversary of two major storms that hit Connecticut and left behind a trail of damage from which the state is still rebounding.
It's been two years since Superstorm Sandy ravaged the Connecticut coast and three years since the October snowstorm knocked out power to most of the state for days on end.
East Haven resident Billy Porto said Sandy left his neighborhood permanently changed.
"It's different. People have raised the houses, but it's like the neighborhood is quiet. It was more active," explained Porto, who moved down the street after Sandy knocked his home off its foundation.
Houses along Fairfield Beach are still in the process of being raised and the process to rebuild is slow after the storm destroyed homes in the neighborhood.
"It's still kind of a mess, but compared to what it was right after Sandy, it's a tremendous improvement," said Fairfield resident Tim Hapgood.
“Our state continues to recover but there’s more work to do. In the months that have passed since Super Storm Sandy, Tropical Storm Irene, and the October Nor’easter of 2011, we have taken steps to make sure our state can weather the effects of climate change," Gov. Dan Malloy said in a statement on Wednesday.
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"We’ve created the nation’s first microgrid program, providing town centers with the capability of sustaining power during large-scale outages. We’re holding utility companies accountable by imposing penalties on them if they don’t take proper precautions or if they don’t restore service in a timely manner," Malloy said.
The state also established Shore Up CT to help shoreline residents protect their homes from storms and flooding and has also preserved open space along the shoreline "as a coastal buffer against storm waters," according to Malloy.
"Sandy was important to us because we have never seen that kind of storm surge that Sandy had produced," explained New Haven Emergency Management Deputy Director Rick Fontana. "We now have new mapping that's been put into place, so our evacuation areas are going to be a little more identified."
How did the storms affect you and your family? Tell the comments and send your photos from the historic storms to shareit@nbcconnecticut.com.
