Homeowners hope for major disaster declaration as costs for cleanup and repairs rise

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, continued their tour of damage in areas hit hard by major flooding over a week ago. They were in Southbury again on Thursday as they look for damaged homes and businesses.

One of their stops was Old Field Road, still split in half because of flooding. Karla Urban has her house right along the street.

 “All that water came rushing in and flooded the whole garage and my whole basement,” Urban said.

The waterline inside the garage is well over six feet high. Cleanup for her has already started, but the damage sustained will be costly.

“We stood at the front door and on the front porch and watched the water raging like a river, it had separated my driveway from the road,” she said of the damage.

FEMA was in the neighborhood with town officials and the first selectman assessing, still counting homeowner costs in pursuit of the major disaster declaration, which would unlock funding sources specifically for home and business owners.

“This is for homeowners and business owners, and they are here first because they are the ones that are going to need help,” First Selectman Jeff Manville said.

While the assessment continued, so did emergency work to roads and bridges.

Manville has been incredibly impressed with the work road crews have been able to get done so quickly, allowing access to homes across town. He noted some workers have clocked over 100 hours of overtime in a week to allow access to certain areas in case of another emergency.

“Important was how the public works crews work to get access to homes, we are still having people isolated from culverts and stuff,” Manville said.

The number of roads still closed remains in flux as crews work. But many of the repairs the first selectman noted are only temporary fixes. They are in the planning process for permanent fixes, but can't help but think about more severe weather.

“Rather than just build back the way it was on a temporary basis, lets look at 'OK, let's put some money into making it resilient,'” he said.

And as homeowners continue to clean up, hope remains FEMA’s visit will mean help to offset those rising costs.

“It would be super helpful and a load off of everyone’s mind if they could get help,” Urban said.

While costs to residents are still being assessed, municipal costs are estimated to be around $100 million. One of the major costs besides roads is the library.

The lower section of Southbury’s library was devastated by flooding. Library equipment, books and town equipment took damage, as did library infrastructure.

“We have a contractor working on that, removing debris and moisture,” Manville said.

His biggest concern is the electric. He said there could be significant enough damage that all electric infrastructure needs to be replaced or repaired.

“People ask me, 'What date, what date?' For the foreseeable future, I can see it's not going to be open, does that mean forever? Absolutely not, we are going to recover,” Manville said.

That has landed many groups who regularly use the library in limbo. We met Santina Licata outside the library Thursday. She teaches English as a second language to non-English speakers through EdAdvance Adult and Continuing Education.

She has a new course beginning Tuesday and is still on the hunt for a new space along Main Street in Southbury to teach.

“We are looking for another place we can have our meetings, we aren’t sure where,” Licata said.

She noted she has been incredibly grateful with how responsive and helpful the library has been as she prepares for another class.

“We look forward to continue in the future when they do open but, in the meantime, we will hang in,” Licata said.