Is Connecticut Prepared for a Major Hurricane?

As bad as Gloria was, it was nothing compared to a category 2 or 3 hurricane. In 1954 Hurricane Carol made landfall in Old Saybrook causing severe and widespread damage in eastern Connecticut. The Hurricane of ’38 made landfall in Milford and resulted in widespread devastation statewide and across almost all of New England.

Michael Spera, president of the Connecticut Emergency Management Association said battling public complacency is a challenge, "I don’t think people necessarily understand the gravity of a serious cat 2 or

3 storm," Spera said.

He says just preparing for the response immediately following a hurricane isn’t enough. One concern is that so much expensive waterfront property will be destroyed that a town’s tax base will take a huge hit, "it would be devastating to our long term economy."

Another concern is the amount of debris that would be generated from a major hurricane. The state estimates that a category 3 hurricane could produce 20 million tons of debris. The average municipal waste sent to garbage dumps in Connecticut is only 5 million tons annually. The state has a Disaster Debris Management plan. It has contracts with debris removal companies to start moving the incredible amount of debris away from the hardest hit towns.

The wind from a hurricane presents a unique challenge to local utilities. Power lines in the state are in some of the most heavily "treed" areas in the country. CL&P estimates that for every mile of power line there are 180 trees nearby. "Connecticut’s tree condition makes us one of the most heavily treed utilities in the country," according to Michael Zappone, Manager of Emergency Prepardness for CL&P. "That is by far one of our most unique challenges."

The Department of Public Utility Control is currently investigating CL&P after many residents and municipal officials in Fairfield County complained about the company’s response following a nor’easter in March. "We learn from every single storm. We have lessons learned," Zappone said.

Peter Boynton, Commissioner of Emergency Management and Homeland Security echoed those lessons learned from CL&P, particularly involving coordination between town emergency managers and the utility. "We’re confident CL&P wants to have that coordination and if we have that good coordination, good cooperation so that all members of the team are working together it would work well," Boynton said.

If a major hurricane were to hit Connecticut this year Zappone says most people would have their power restored in 5-10 days. Commissioner Boynton wouldn’t say if he agreed with those figures and neither would Spera. A study done by the state DEP in 2007 concluded "a major hurricane has the potential of causing complete disruption of power and communications for up to 3 weeks."

Former deputy commissioner of homeland security and emergency management Wayne Sandford had a much gloomier outlook. When asked in a 2007 interview with NBC Connecticut how long power restoration would take after a repeat of the 1938 hurricane he said,  "there would be people in the state of Connecticut that would not have power to put their Christmas lights up at Christmas time."

The DEP ran a simulation in collaboration with the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security and FEMA to recreate the impact of a category 3 hurricane like the one that struck in 1938. The results were sobering. The model estimated 270,000 buildings in Connecticut would be at least moderately damaged. Damage in the state would be $36 billion in Connecticut alone. To put that in perspective, Hurricane Andrew, a category 5, did $41 billion in today’s dollars. Hurricane Gloria did $1.8 billion in damage in the entire northeast.