The large ice jam along the Housatonic River in Kent is slowly melting, but State Police had to shut down Route 7 because of more flooding.
Route 7 is closed between Route 341 and Bulls Bridge after some water came up onto the road from the river and posed a hazard to drivers. At this point, emergency officials say there is no threat to nearby homes, but they are hoping the water recedes before freezing onto the road.
“The ground is frozen right now, so it’s very hard for any water to absorb and what was frozen last week is still in place. So a lot of the runoff we’re seeing is from the rain from yesterday that had nowhere to go,” said State Representative Brian Ohler, who represents Kent.
The larger two-mile ice jam started melting by about 1,300 feet on the north end. The second ice jam is still about a half-a-mile long near Bulls Bridge.
Rep. Ohler said the ice jams might take another two to three weeks to break apart and move downstream, which could create problems for towns like in New Milford.
“There’s trees, there’s pieces of docking, there’s a boat, an old dog house that had come down from Mass. (Massachusetts) There’s still a lot of objects of concern because it still has to get through the Bulls Bridge dam, down through Gaylordsville and then into New Milford,” said Ohler.
