The last Crossroads Hardware leaf bag (Photo/Jamie Walsh)
Alert — and cautious — “06880” reader Robin Gusick reports:
This is Post Road East by Compo Shopping Center, going up the hill near CVS.
Tons of cars are stuck with their hazard lights on, scattered all over the road. I have never seen anything like it.
Drive safely!
Robin added this PS a few minutes after I posted her story:
My husband Dave and son Sam rescued me by getting my “stuck” car into the bank parking lot. Now we have 2 cars in the Wells Fargo lot, and no way to get home.
We decided to make lemonade out of lemons. We walked across the street to enjoy a meal and drinks at Little Kitchen. There are many other patrons here in the same boat.
This is one way to help Westport businesses! Now it’s back to my jalapeño margarita, and shrimp with garlic sauce!
Fantastic fall foliage, all around town.
(Photo/David McKenzie)
Longshore (Photo/Samuel Wang)
Bridge over Deadman Brook, downtown (Photo/Samuel Wang)
Saugatuck River and beyond, from Grace Salmon Park (Photo/Samuel Wang)
Fall comes to Wild Rose Lane (Photo/Julie Fatherley)
Posted in Downtown, Longshore, Pic of the Day, Weather
Tagged Deadman Brook, Grace Salmon Park, Wild Rose Lane
Waiting for the train in the rain (Photo/Ellen Wentworth)
Last weekend’s nor’easter brought flooding — again — to many parts of town. Main Street was spared this time.
Downtown was not so lucky last month, though. Torrential downpours on consecutive Tuesdays sent water pouring into stores on both side of the road.
Merchants and shoppers think these floods happen more frequently these days.
Perhaps.
But there’s no doubt that flooding on Main Street is not new.
Alert “06880” reader James Gray sent this photo. It was taken at 2 p.m. on August 31, 1954. Hurricane Carol had just roared through town. Packing winds of 110 miles an hour, it headed toward landfall in eastern Connecticut.
The sun was already out in Westport. But — in a ritual as unwelcome in 2018 as in 1954 — the cleanup had just begun.
Today’s nor’easter caused havoc throughout Westport. This was the scene at Burying Hill Beach. (Photo/Nico Eisenberger)
The wind and full moon whipped the water all the way to the Compo Beach parking lot. (Photo/Ian Warburg)
Water rose nearly to the top of the Sherwood Mill Pond tidal gates. (Photo/Robin Tauck)
Today’s nor’easter damaged this 1915 Compo Cove house. It’s weathered many previous ones too. (Photo/Robin Tauck)
On the other side of the Mill Pond, waves lashed Old Mill Beach at Compo Cove. (Photo/Robin Tauck)
A flooded yard at Old Mill Beach … (Photo/Matt Murray)
… and, behind Old Mill, the garage for Compo Cove residents was under water. (Photo/Matt Murray)
A backyard on Stony Point Road. It’s behind the high wall near the train station eastbound parking lot, by the Saugatuck River. (Photo/Richard Jaffe)
Today’s storm brought the Chipper B — the abandoned vessel near Saugatuck Harbor Yacht Club — another 10 feet closer to shore. (Photo/Jennifer Seymour)
Posted in Beach, Pic of the Day, Weather
Tagged Burying Hill Beach, Compo Cove, Old Mill Beach, Saugatuck Shores, Sherwood Mill Pond tidal gates
Saugatuck Shores was hit hardest by today’s near-nor’easter. Jennifer Seymour reports:
2 hours after high tide, there was still several feet of water. My husband rescued me and my sons by kayak on the island side of the Saugatuck Island bridge. I lived here during Irene and Sandy, and have seen nothing close since then.
With Saugatuck Shores flooded, Jennifer Seymour’s husband and daughter paddle a kayak.
One view of Saugatuck Shores …
… and another. Yes, that’s a road. (Saugatuck Shores photos/Jennifer Seymour)
Longshore’s ER Strait Marina …
… and nearby Evan Harding Point. (Longshore photos/Scott Smith)
The Soundview Drive seawall took a pounding … (Photo/Andrew Colabella)
… but it doesn’t faze Soundview resident Paul Lane. He’s lived there for decades, and weathered many storms. (Photo/Betsy P. Kahn)
An old standby: the Compo cannons. (Photo/Andrew Colabella)
Quentin Road, off Compo Beach Road. (Photo/Bruce Becker)
Grove Point Road was underwater too. (Photo/Andrew Colabella)
Posted in Beach, Longshore, Weather
Tagged Compo Beach cannons, ER Strait Marina, Grove Point Road, Quentin Road, Saugatuck Shores, Soundview Drive
We avoided torrential rain. The 50-mph wind gusts never came.
Still, Westport did not escape today’s rains. And — with the moon nearly full — floods were reported all over town.
This is the new normal.
There was no outdoor dining today at Arezzo restaurant. (Photo/Scott Rownin)
At Parker Harding Plaza, flood gates seem not to have been deployed. Water poured in to the nail salon. (Photo/Chip Stephens)
Old Mill Beach got pounded … (Photo/Betsy P. Kahn)
… as did nearby Hillspoint Road. (Photo/Betsy P. Kahn)
This was the scene at South Compo Road, near Bradley Street … (Photo/Chip Stephens)
… and around the corner, Bradley Street and Fairfield Avenue. (Photo/Betsy P. Kahn)
Additional flooding was reported at Wilton Road and Post Road West; Imperial Avenue near Baker Avenue, and Harbor and Canal Roads on Saugatuck Shores.
Tomorrow should be partly cloudy, with a high near 55. Winds will be 5-10 mph.
Posted in Beach, Downtown, Weather
Tagged Arezzo restaurant, Bradley Street, Hillspoint Road, Old Mill Beach, Parker Harding Plaza
Torrential downpours a week apart brought flash floods to Westport, earlier this month.
But they weren’t hurricanes. And they weren’t the first times floods caused havoc here.
Earlier this year Bill Coley — a 1967 graduate of Staples High School, and a descendant of the founders of the Coleytown section of town — was sorting through old photos.
He found 2 from August 1955. Back-to-back hurricanes — Connie and Diane — had just pummeled Westport.
The images show what was left of the old stone bridge that carried North Avenue over the Aspetuck River. Bill is 5 years old, standing with his father on Coleytown Road looking north on North Avenue.
He had heard a WMMM radio announcer say the North Avenue bridge was out. Bill’s father didn’t believe it. He had to drive over and see for himself.
Bill’s father was born, and grew up in, the house on the road just north of the river. Bill’s great-grandfather was born in the house where Paul Newman lived.
The bridge has been replaced. And Paul and Joanne Woodward’s house still stands.
Posted in Friday Flashback, Weather
Tagged 1955 hurricanes, Bill Coley, North Avenue bridge
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