People who live along Connecticut’s coastline are keeping a close eye on the path of Jose in the Atlantic Ocean.
Local
Many know first-hand how devastating a tropical storm of hurricane can be for the shoreline.
“This was our 38th summer,” said Wayne Capone, owner of Stowe’s Seafood in West Haven.
Capone remembers the storm surge from Irene, Sandy and Hurricane Gloria in 1985.
“All three of them,” he said, “I got three feet of water where we’re standing right now, we got three feet of water, but when the tide went out, the water went out, I never had to pump the water out.”
For his business, Capone said the bigger issue is the possibility of losing power for an extended period of time.
“One of the hurricanes we didn’t lose power at all, the second hurricane Sandy we lost power for 7 days,” he said, “that’s when it’s a pain.”
With Jose heading toward the east coast, Capone said he will be checking the forecast.
“Absolutely, if it hits us in the middle of the week the way I look at that, that’s better,” Capone said, “it will leave my weekends alone.”
In Milford, the neighborhood on East Broadway by the Silver Sands beach was hit hard by both storms in 2011 and 2012.
“I remember just walking down here, a lot of the homes were damaged after Sandy and Irene,” Sally Whelan told NBC Connecticut.
Whelan lives a little further inland, but she still worries what could happen if Jose reaches the Milford shoreline.
“That the people down here would have a lot of flooding and damage and all these beautiful homes might be wrecked,” she said.
Superstorm Sandy wrecked Dawn Theodorsen’s summer beach home that was built in the 1920s, she said.
“It was very, very emotional coming down here after that storm,” Theodorsen said. “I mean it looked like a warzone down here.”
When they rebuilt their house, they had it raised 13 feet off the ground. Other homeowners on the street chose not to do the same.
“I think we’re in good position this time,” Theodorsen said. “We built it so that it could withstand a storm.”
A storm surge from Jose next week could push water under her home.
“I think we’ll have to move the boat and we will probably have to move all of our kayaks and paddle boards and our beach chairs and everything underneath,” Theodorsen said, “and we’ll probably have to take the cars and park them somewhere else.”
For Whelan and her family, the main concern is a possible power outage from strong winds.
“So will you be tracking Jose the next couple of days?” NBC Connecticut asked Whelan.
“I will now,” she said, “because you just informed me. I wasn’t even aware of it, so I definitely will now thank you.”
With more sunshine in the forecast for this weekend, Capone said owning a shoreline business is worth the risk, even during hurricane season.
“You want to work or live on the water,” he said, “this is what you got to put up with, I mean it’s a tradeoff.”
