Kent has lifted the state of emergency regarding the notorious mile-long ice jam blocking the Housatonic River.
It was never a question of if it would make its way downstream, rather when, and how.
"It was incredible to see the power of Mother Nature and then watching it all sort of runoff," Karen Garrity said.
Homeowners miles downstream in New Milford braced for the other side of the ice jam. The town feared the ice would break off, bottleneck and cause major flooding.
To everyone’s relief, the jam started moving mid-February and didn’t stop.
"We would see these big chunks of ice going down and then with it, debris," New Milford resident Kathleen Schmidt said.
State Representative Brian Ohler credits the successful thaw to time and temperature. Mother Nature released the ice into the Housatonic little by little, gradually bringing the water line up with it.
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"That’s what we needed," Ohler said. "We needed it to make contact with the ice."
After 33 days of analyzing and preparing for seemingly every scenario, Ohler is confident he and other town officials know more about ice jams than he ever thought necessary.
"If this did occur again, we could react that much quicker to get people out of the area or even an advance warning system saying, 'Hey, we noticed the ice jam forming again. We need to take preventative measures,'" Ohler said.
