A weakening-but-dangerous Hurricane Irene tore through southwestern Connecticut Sunday morning, dumping between five and six inches of rain in an area that had already been saturated by previous storms. The highest winds arrived at almost the same time as high tide, which had already been exacerbated by the new moon. The counterclockwise motion of the storm shoved water into Long Island Sound, compounding the problems.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered for beachfront properties in Fairfield, Conn., where several houses collapsed as flood waters crested. Since I live only shortly further inland along the banks of Ash Creek, I checked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) floodplain maps for our area the night before the hurricane.
The garden in my backyard was within the 100-year flood zone, as was the end of the street, which terminates in a construction area for the new Metro North train station. These sections, as you can see in the video below, ended up under water.
Our house, fortunately, was sufficiently high up on the slope to avoid inundation.
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