Streets in South Windsor with the word "wood" in their names - Oakwood, Knollwood, Cliffwood - also have wood piled high on their roadsides after cleanup from the snowstorm.
Removing the debris could cost up to $6 million, town officials figure, with FEMA paying 75% of it. To pay its share with up to $1.5 million from bonding, the town council voted in an emergency meeting to seek a state of dire emergency from the state government. The declaration trumps the provision in the town charter that limits bonding without a referendum to $50,000.
"This is the plan," said Mayor John Pelkey, (D) South Windsor, "to get as much off the side of the roads as possible, as quickly as possible."
Cleanup is beginning in earnest, he said, now that the contractor has figured out how narrow vehicles need to be to negotiate the streets.
"We have neighborhoods that just look like bombs went off on them," said Pelkey.
Overhead, there is still debris in the trees that could come down like spears, he said, and he's worried wiring done in a rush may not hold up in the next bad storm.
