You’ve seen the pictures: washed out rail tracks, crumbled roadways,
debris and flood damage everywhere. The
1000-year storm that hit the Naugatuck Valley last week caused destruction of
biblical proportions. And the
reconstruction will take weeks, possibly months.Waterbury Branch of MNRR
First off the CDOT must secure
the damaged areas, remove the debris and inspect for structural damage. Where appropriate they’ll replace damaged
bridges with temporary spans, pulled from an inventory of such bridges stored
for such occasions. Some such temporary bridges may be weight restricted. Meantime, expect delays and slow driving
through an obstacle course of cones and repair crews.
Above all, we will need
patience. Though the damage from the
storm happened in minutes it will take awhile to get things back to normal.
The good news (if there is
any) is that disaster reconstruction will be mostly paid with Federal dollars
and can be done faster without environmental studies and competitive
bidding. As one CDOT veteran says, “It’ll
a great time for contractors”.
As we enjoy the last week of
summer, don’t let the nice weather fool you.
Storms can happen anytime… and will hit us again. The question is, how
to rebuild better, anticipating future deluges.
While existing bridges and
culverts were mostly built to handle 50-year storms, there’s no way to rebuild
them to handle a 1000-year storm like we saw last week. It’s just not practical or affordable… even
though such storms are certainly happening more frequently.
You can follow this rebuilding
progress and its potential delays. Best
resource is CDOT’s website CTRoads.com,
useful even in good weather to anticipate traffic and delays. Doubtless the CDOT’s own website will monitor
progress in the rebuild as that agency has done a much better job in recent
years at improving the transparency of their operation. Kudos to CDOT Commissioner Eucalitto and his
crews for their efforts so far and their frequent updates.
But when bad weather returns…
and it will… where will you turn for advisories? How will you know if its safe to drive, and
where?
Sure there are websites and
social media, but nothing beats local radio… the folks who know your community
best. But will they be there to
help? Do your even know your local
stations frequency? And do they even
have a working news department?
The demise this week of all-news
juggernaut WCBS 880 in New York City is indicative of a dangerous trend. While some of my old radio friends, like
Connecticut residents Paul Murnane and Joe Connolly, have lost their jobs, we
have lost an incredible information resource.
In its almost 57 years of
all-news coverage, WCBS got us through 9/11, Sandy, and countless blizzards. Theirs was a dependable, go-to resource
available 24x7 in our cars and homes (even without electricity, if we’d
prepared). They will be missed terribly.
Don’t let what happened to
them happen in your community. Support
your local media, print and broadcast.
Listen, subscribe and patronize their advertisers. Keep them in business so they are there when
we need them most.
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