‘It’s like a swamp’: Hartford residents share the reality of living with flooded homes and businesses

Some Hartford residents are pleased that the state has pledged $85 million funding to address flooding in streets and basements in the north end, but say that won’t take away the sickening memories they have of sewage, massive amounts of water and damage to their homes.

Residents in several areas of the city were still dealing recently with the flooding that has followed torrential rainstorms that hit Hartford and Connecticut in the first two weeks of July, just weeks after the announcement of the funding and amid ongoing city and state repair efforts.

Amid the continuing issues caused by weather and inadequate sewers, five residents shared with The Courant the stories of the emotional toll it takes on them whenever it rains and water floods in their homes and businesses, the smell of decay, and the losses they incur, many of their losses irreplaceable.

Sharon Lewis: ‘Gone in an instant’

Her house was condemned.

Sharon Lewis, who is a resident and executive director of the CT Coalition for Environmental Justice, said that she has endured a lot of setbacks for the past few months since she was impacted by sewage and water on Dec. 4, 2022.

She discovered flooding that day in her basement. When her husband opened the door to the basement, they rushed to get out of the house. The house is still condemned, and her last day at living at a hotel was July 3.

The biggest setback she said she endured was discovering that she had no insurance for sewage backups.

“All of my precious antiques were destroyed and discarded. My mother’s DNA was in the basement freezer. I never got around to sending it in. Everyone who knows me knows that I’ve been a collector of rare artifacts from the African American experience post slavery my entire life. I was so proud to own a piece of history. Gone in an instant,” she said.

Today, she has temporary housing that she is staying in, where a private donor is paying her rent for a year.

While she is grateful for individuals who have given her help, Lewis said the situation remains very overwhelming for her.

“Then, to discover I was technically homeless?…This has taken a tremendous toll on me. Never in a million years would I have thought that I’d be in a situation such as this. Seven months and 1 day living in limbo not being able to help myself due to the emotional toll this has taken. I’ve been hospitalized twice for issues relating to stress,” she said.

Bridgitte Prince: ‘You can never replace that’

Although she lost her military items 35 years ago to flooding, the pain of the loss remains in Prince’s heart to this day, she said, which fuels her to fight as a community leader and activist for issues to be resolved for all residents in the north end.

“I mean, it’s like anything else a person may lose that has value, that they treasure that is priceless and irreplaceable. I view the loss — it’s definitely depression, for sure, depressing, because, you know, that was a period, that was a time in my life, I was young, just overwhelmed with and by patriotism.”

While she was born in Hartford, Prince was raised in East Hartford where she and many of her friends had a goal of going into the military and were able to make that dream come true.

That makes it more painful for her when she attends events where veterans are honored, as they wear military uniforms and metals with pride.

“I see different events where you have veterans and heroes, who may have been from different wars that are being recognized, whether it’s (the) current war, a current military situation, or going back to World War II, to see those veterans sit there with their military uniforms on, the metals and the memorabilia. They have on their uniform…That’s something that I will never experience. I will never, ever experience that,” she said.

Along with her military uniform, she had paperwork, metals, and certificates from the military that she cherished, all were lost after her father’s home flooded years ago in Hartford.

“They were great honors, they were great tributes. I don’t have those. I don’t have them, so I understand. I understand when the people talk about things that they have that are tangible and replaceable,” she said.

“I also, even more so, mourn and grieve with the people who have lost things. People have lost pictures, family photo albums in these floods, you can never replace that. You know, the only thing you have is a memory of what it might look like, but you can’t pick it up and look at it, hold it, you know, just reminisce while you have that object in your possession, that is gone. So I understand,” she said.

Prince said that when her father’s home flooded, there was a strong smell of mildew and mold, wetness and decay. Talking about it makes her emotional, she said. Her dad also lost a lot of his personal family mementos as well, such as photos. She said that while she could petition for her medals, the papers that came with them cannot be replaced.

As she is an activist when it comes to flooding and sewage issues, residents also call her in tears about the latest damage their houses during storms, she said.

“People call me crying. You know, the church called me. This is how I found out about the church, North United Methodist Church called me on the Fourth of July. And I was like, the irony of it, Independence Day,” she said.

“How do you celebrate independence, where we are still looking and fighting for the government to say OK, this matters, this is beyond urgent. You should not have to be sitting there celebrating or commemorating the Fourth of July,  anywhere in this country, let alone in Hartford, Connecticut, and the leaders aren’t there supporting you,” she said.

Leaders should be making sure residents are “independent of sewage and toxins and waste and flooding coming into your property, destroying your possessions that you worked hard for, that you inherited, that you earned,” Prince said.

Prince said that there may be more flooding to come, as more rain is expected this week, according to the National Weather Service.

During this recent storm, she said, the city should have been out there assisting all residents who needed it, along with offering their relocation assistance.

Prince also said she believes officials who attended the press conference celebrating the $85 million in funding announced by Gov. Ned Lamont should have been present to help constituents.

Nikeda Parkes: ‘It’s like a swamp’

Homeowner Nikeda Parkes said that when she first purchased her home on Granby Street, she did not know about flooding issues she would be inheriting.

During the last rainfall, Parkes said that she noticed water again gathering in the back of her home by a huge tree, which is effecting the foundation of her home. The water has fed the tree, which was growing into her young son’s bedroom.

“We had to spray it to kill it and then cut and peel, but the more we peel and the more the water sits there, it feeds the plant again and it just continues to grow and grow and grow. So the last set of water we had, the water got into the house from a very odd place and we can’t trace where the water came from in the house,” she said.

Amid the flooding issues at her home, the roots are pushing up and breaking the concrete in the back of her house and the concrete under the foundation of the house, as her house is on a slab with no basement.

Parkes said that this has been exhausting and frustrating for her and she is tallying up the amount of money she will need to fix flooding damage.

“I’m at $6,000 and counting in trying to fix things. And you know, the longer (the city and state) takes….we are going to be forced to pay for things on our own. I am fortunate enough that I can, but you know, there might come a time where the damage…gets so bad that I can’t fix it,” she said. “So I’m trying to fix it in the meantime, but this is not something that they should be dragging their feet on.”

Parkes said that if she knew then what she knows now about her home, she would not have purchased it. It also took her by surprise that many of her neighbors had been dealing with the flooding issues for such a long time, she said.

“They have gotten so used to the empty promises, that they don’t have any hope in seeing that it’s gonna be fixed,” she said. “And I was so upset because I’m not one to be OK with that kind of stuff happening. If you say you’re going to do something for the good of the community that you know you want to serve, at the end of the day you want their vote – you want to make sure you keep those promises, you stay in constant contact and update them as much as you can.”

As a result of recent rain, Parkes said that she would not be able to cut her grass anytime soon, as the water was like a swimming pool in the middle of her backyard and has not run off into the street.

This stops her and her son from fully enjoying their home.

“That’s all bad, because that’s the breeding ground for all types of insects and bugs. You know, nobody wants to deal with that. Right now, I am buying stuff to spray the house so that we can go outside and sit on our furniture,” she said.  “We can’t enjoy inside, as it’s too hot. We can’t enjoy outside, because it’s like a swamp.”

Parkes, however, noted there are residents who have to deal with worse flooding issues than she does and that she still has hope that things will get better, especially with the new funding

“Being me, I’m very determined…I’ll make it happen because I will nag you and find your boss and your boss’s boss, until I’m heard. I don’t just stop at the first person that tells me no, because at the end of the day, that person has somebody that they have to answer to…Everybody has somebody to answer to,” she said.

Reggie Hales: ‘Brings me tears weekly’

Reggie Hales is a Hartford native, and president of Hartford Enterprise Zone Business Association and Inquiring News publisher. While he no longer lives in the area, he represents and supports local merchants in the Main Street, Barbour Street, Windsor Street areas, known as the “Enterprise Zone.”

Hales said the city knew that flooding and severe storms were going to happen again, despite the recent funding, which left many merchants and residents in the north end victimized by Mother Nature.

“Here again, the same and if not more merchants and residents in the north end Main Street, Granby streets, the typical areas, were victimized again by Mother Nature,” he said. “And so residents are just exhausted. And we continue to have to point out the fact that we’re low on the totem pole, these promises come every four years. And at the end of the day, we continue to have to suffer.”

He said he is advising residents and business owners that it could be time to explore legal action to get the flooding and sewage issues fixed.

“Is it fair that they continue to be a victim of something that obviously is an emergency in any other community?,” he said.

Hales said the flooding and sewage negatively impacts merchants and their businesses in the north end, as they lose customers and are unable to be open until they clean up the damages — and they often lack insurance to cover the cost.

“So the people that live, work here, and do business, when can we relax? When can we go out of town, because when you come back — your whole stock on whatever floor of your business is deteriorating, destroyed,” he said. “That brings me tears weekly, just the treatment. We all have black and white photos of Hartford of these areas and from the 60s and they don’t look that much different.”

Max Kothari: ‘I’ll find my answers’

Max Kothari, who is closing his Star Hardware business due to repeated flooding, said that the issue is not about flooding, but it is an infrastructure issue that needs to be dealt with by those in power.

“The people in power keep talking about infrastructure, which is true. There is an infrastructure issue that needs to be dealt with. Majority of the issues are controllable within their reach, but they choose not to fix it. And that is very, very disheartening. You feel like this is our community –  why are these people treating us so bad? Why do they spend millions of dollars on bikepaths? Millions of dollars are spent for outside developers to go downtown buildings, on stadiums,” he said.

“To see…younger African American, minority kids playing in sewer water, not knowing that they’re playing in sewer water. It’s just a crime. And what is really astounding is the people in power know about this…(but it) does not equate to a health emergency,” he said.

His hardware store was 116 years old and he had been running it for 35 years with his wife. Many residents had relied on the store, such as the elderly living within the area.

He said it is traumatic for him to think about coming into work on July 4 and having to call his employees to come in to clean up the flooding that day – instead of celebrating the holiday with their loved ones.

Kothari said that what stuns him the most what he sees as the lack of humanity when it comes to solving issues in the north end.

“There’s nothing in place to say, ‘hey, call us tomorrow. And we’ll set up a center.’ We have got to help people. I’m not talking about helping me. I’ll find my answers. I’m talking about the folks that are in the community today,” he said.

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