Connecticut’s Governor and other state and local officials held a press conference today to remind residents to take emergency preparedness seriously. The conference was held in Oxford, the site of last year’s flash flood that took the lives of two people.
“Be prepared,” said Ronnell Higgins, Commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP). “We will continue to emphasize that, as we continue to work our way through hurricane season.”
Higgins, who held a moment of silence for the over 120 people killed in Texas’s recent flash floods, said that “we’re all mourning the tragedy,” and that “we also recall” the two Oxford residents who died last year.
“It’s important for us that we use this moment to be laser focused,” said Higgins. “All of the resources of our agency in the state are ready, but we must have our Connecticut residents ready to work with us.”
Higgins and other speakers recommended state residents to work out emergency plans with their families, keep to-go bags, or bags packed with essentials in case of emergencies, to check on neighbors and friends in times of emergency, and to sign up for CT Alerts. William Turner, the State’s Emergency Management Director, said that only about 7% of state’s residents are currently signed up for the system, which provides notifications to residents when an emergency occurs in their area.
“It’s disappointing to know that only 7% of the people have signed up for it,” said Brenda Bergeron, DESPP’s Deputy Commissioner and manager of the state’s Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DEMHS). “We do have access to the 911 system, so we’re able to get messages out through that system, but this really does give us a chance to increase the level of alerts that we can get out.”
Bergeron assured residents of the competence of the state’s “robust emergency management system.” Bergeron said that the state’s emergency response “really is a team effort,” between the DEMHS and “state, local, tribal, federal, nonprofit and private sector partners.” Bergeron said DEMHS has five regional coordinators who are on-call 24/7 to assist with emergencies, weather experts in “constant communication” with the National Weather Service and NOAA, and a staff that are “there all the time” training, and reviewing and updating emergency plans.
“We’re all there to assist our municipalities and the public, if we’re needed,” said Bergeron.
Turner said that the biggest risk posed to Connecticut residents is floods, but that there are “all sorts of other threats and hazards,” that residents should be prepared to deal with, such as tornadoes. Turner said he believes that the range of damaging and potentially deadly floods looks to be more likely in the future.
“What we’re see more and more is that flooding is happening more often outside of the FEMA designated flood plains, and we’re hearing so often where people have lost their home or had flooded homes, where they didn’t have flood insurance and they didn’t realize they needed it because they weren’t in a flood plain,” said Turner. “We’re really trying to just help people understand not only how to keep yourself prepared and safe, but also protect your investments, protect your property by making sure you have that flood insurance in place.”
George Temple, Oxford’s first Selectman, shared that he, too, was taken by surprise at the damage last year’s flooding wrought on the town. The flood came after the town received about 15 inches of rain in a single day, breaking the state’s previously held single-day rainfall record that was set in 1955.
“Floods were never in our experience, but they sure are now,” said Temple. “Right behind me, is the one [the river] that caused all the problems; Little River. And it’s really – it’s not a little river, it’s a big brook, and so if it can happen to us, it can happen anywhere.”
U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) addressed recent concerns surrounding the current administration’s handling of FEMA, to emphasize that states, municipalities and individuals themselves all must play a greater role in emergency preparedness now than before.
“I wish I could tell you that Washington was doing everything they could to augment and reform and modernize FEMA,” said Hines. “If you read the news you know that is not happening, and I’m not going to go too far down that path but to say that it’s my job to work on that, but it’s all of our job to address the things that we can do right here.”
On the topic of questionable FEMA responses, Gov. Ned Lamont said he would be open in the future to tapping the state’s Rainy Day Fund to provide relief to municipalities in the wake of natural disaster.
“We have a Rainy Day Fund, it’s usually there to protect against recession, so we don’t have to raise taxes or cut education spending, but maybe we ought to have a little bit there just in case I can help out George [Temple] in the case of emergency, while he’s waiting for FEMA to respond,” said Lamont. “I’ve got to work with the legislature on that, but it seems like a timely name for the fund.”
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