People who live along Jobs Pond in Portland continue to deal with rising water, with the latest batch of rain causing at least six inches to rise in the pond.
NBC Connecticut first brought you the story last Friday, when residents said they feared they’d lose their homes if action wasn’t taken.
“We expect with the heavy rains going on today into tonight, we’re gonna see another eight inches easily,” said Ellen Mantel, a resident of Jobs Pond Gate 1. “We’ve got folks that are building dams around their furnaces to try to keep the water out, installing sump pumps, putting in sandbags left and right to keep it at bay.”
On Monday, state and town leaders visited the neighborhood to get a look at the situation themselves.
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Town Selectman Ryan Curley said the only potential solution appears to be to pump out the pond, which happened back in the 1980s.
“The state is currently exploring whether or not pumping would be feasible and/or allowed,” he said.
Residents hope help comes soon, as they say many of their neighbors have already packed up their things and left. One man has measured 40 inches of water in his basement from February to April 1.
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“We’ve got about five different homes right now that are vacant because people just can’t live there. It’s just too much water. It’s hitting power boxes, it’s coming up through furnaces,” Mantel said. “Even without the rains, it was coming up at least an inch a day.”
Jeanne Bishop, whose family has lived on the pond since the 1930s, has four sump pumps going around the clock to save her basement.
“[It’s] very scary, it’s something you don’t expect, and especially so quickly. But we need help,” Bishop said. “Every day you wake up, we were praying the rain would not hit us.”
The before and after of the pond is shocking. Before, homeowners had hundreds of feet of grass and beach before reaching the pond. Now, it’s all water up against homes.
“We could just step right across. Now, I can pretty much dive off my deck,” said Andrzej Lipski, a resident of Jobs Pond. “Even since last night, because of the recent rains, now we have just a pump going putting out 20 gallons of water out the doors. Now that can’t even keep up.”
“We’ve already lost water, and we’re worried we’re gonna lose power, obviously lose our furnace, lose everything,” resident Tom McGinty said. “We’re making plans to, if we have to, get out of here and evacuate like some of our neighbors have had to.”
Rep. Christie Carpino (R-Portland) also visited the neighborhood Monday.
In a statement, her office said, “This natural phenomena is causing safety concerns for dozens of residents. As the water level continues to rise, public safety must be prioritized. I’ve toured the area to better understand the magnitude and we are working collectively at the state level to explore our options.”
“We’re hopeful that something may come, you know, the wheels sometimes turn a little slowly. But we are hopeful, before we all go under completely, we are hopeful something will happen,” Mantel said.
