Star Hardware owner Max Kothari said he no longer believes residents can look for answers about Hartford flooding from a water agency, the city, or state officials.
Kothari spoke Wednesday in frustration after his store was flooded again Tuesday and he had to have six people come into the store for hours during the July 4 holiday to clean up the damage from the flooding.
“We need to take this issue in our own hands. (These are) our kids playing in sewer water in our basements. If it was anybody else, they would not have to wait for the $75 million for them to run the program,” he said.
“Somebody would have had emergency trucks today running around doing this, because we are lacking the type of leadership that we need to actually voice this. So we need to figure something else out. We need to change our tactic,” he said.
Residents in several areas of the city were dealing with the aftermath of more flooding damage Wednesday, a storm reported the National Weather Service as flash flooding happening in “the Hartford metropolitan areas” on Tuesday.
In the aftermath, State Comptroller Sean Scanlon met with some of the impacted residents at the Collin Bennett Building Wednesday to start gathering feedback on the kind of program that would help fix flooding and sewage issues.
On June 26, Gov. Ned Lamont and his administration committed $85 million in state funding from the state Clean Water Fund and related funding for a pilot program to address sewage overflows in streets and basements in North Hartford. Residents there have been chronically impacted by the long-term recurrence of flooding.
The Clean Water Fund is administered by state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and is used by the state to provide financial assistance to municipalities for projects addressing wastewater.
The new money will be applied to 12 projects proposed by the Metropolitan District to increase protections from sewer and stormwater-related flooding and backups in North Hartford, with the projects estimated to cost $170 million in total.
Officials said that coupled with the $85 million commitment, the biennial state budget that Lamont signed creates the Hartford Sewerage System Repair and Improvement Fund, a pilot grant program overseen by Scanlon that will provide support to Hartford residents impacted by flood damage on or after Jan. 1, 2021.
Scanlon told residents that the program he will oversee, and work with the community on designing, is going to be the first time that residents who have been dealing with flooding issues for many years are going to get the help they rightly deserve.
“I’m hoping that that’s good news. I know, it’s not good news today, because … you need help today. But these storms are only getting worse and until they fix the underlying problem, people are going to continue to get impacted by these kinds of things,” he said.
Residents shared gratitude for Scanlon meeting with them but said they are seeking immediate solutions to deal with flooding, sewage and damage to their homes.
Resident Ula Dodson said she recommends that when creating applications for the new program, that they should be simple to complete for all residents, and a hotline should be created for residents to obtain help filling out applications, if needed.
“Even if you had some place where people can actually go if they need help. You need a hotline, so people can call in to get information or can you facilitate me helping to fill out the application…so we need to make it easier for people to access funds if there’s money available,” she said.
North United Methodist Church Operations Manager Donna Charles Morrison said that the church basement was flooded Tuesday, despite having a backflow preventer, as it was installed in the wrong place.
She said that not only do the flooding issues impact lives, but also livelihoods — as they worked to make sure that space was available for Goodwin University to provide manufacturing training.
“For example, Goodwin University was supposed to be here (providing) manufacturing training for the community, and their space was flooded. So that was our primary focus yesterday, to make sure that that space gets back to where (it) can be occupied is something that’s needed. So we can’t wait. I just want to emphasize that,” she said.
Upper Albany Merchants Association President June Lyons said she is also a victim of flooding issues, as she lives across from Star Hardware. She also stressed the importance of having immediate help when it comes to this issue.
“Every time the rain falls, my heart beats, because regardless of what I’ve done and I’m doing, this problem persists. And I agree with just about what everyone else here is saying (about) the process of getting the funding that we need immediately, we’re not having that. I’m concerned about my merchants who are along this corner that gets flooded all the time,” she said. “That’s a health issue …There are so (many) different factors to this. But what I think this is when you look at it is environmental injustice … because we keep asking and keep going through the right channels all the time. But yet, there’s nothing being done.”
Lyons said that her basement flooded Tuesday, even though she has the sump pump and the city’s $7,500 flooding assistance to get help.
“I need help now. My basement flooded yesterday, even though I got the sump pump, and the (money) from the city to get help,” she said.
North United Methodist Church member and resident Irma Davis said she had to run outside and flag down a Fire Department truck in an unsuccessful attempt to get help with the flooding in the church basement.
Resident Burnet Neggre of Oakland Terrace and said the problem has been happening for the last 20 years.
“I remember 10 years ago, water coming so high … just some nasty stuff floating, putting gloves on. So what is this? It was feces. I swear it was,” he said.
“I’m glad for the administration, because it didn’t seem like we had a voice the first time, but now we have a voice. We just need the right people to take us in the right places … we’ve been suffering for years and years. We hope that something can be done, and more can be done,” he said.
Community Activist and Leader Bridgitte Prince said it is still emotional for her to see her neighbors and friends in distress, due to the flooding and sewage and she sees it as an issue of environmental injustice.
“It’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I understand completely how they feel. I understand completely what they are going through. I understand the helplessness, because it’s not a lack of money,” she said.
Greater Hartford African American Alliance president and mayoral candidate J Stan McCauley said residents should continue to support those who are doing the work, such as Prince, to hold those in power accountable to making sure the problem is fixed.
“They’re working on the problem, that’s clear, there is dedicated money and resources to fix it,” he said. “But then the means — there should be immediate fixes that can mitigate some of the problems that are happening in people’s houses. Then, there are systemic fixes, which may take some years to fix. This won’t be the last time this happens. And there will be flooding everywhere. Can we stop the rain from falling? No, but can we stop sewage from entering into people’s houses? Absolutely, we can stop. It’s a matter of where the fixes apply.”