Archive for February 9th, 2013

“Worst storm since ’78″ Mayor Blake says

Saturday, February 9, 2013 by:John Burgeson
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MILFORD — Mayor Benjamin Blake said that the storm was the worst one to hit Milford since Storm Larry barrelled through Connecticut in 1978.

“I spent most of the morning (on Saturday) in a plow truck, and it’s just slow moving,” he said. “The volume of snow is such that we have to find a place to put it all. An unprecedented situation.”

Mayor Blake urged residents to stay off the roads, to check to make sure that exhaust gas air vents are cleared and also to check in on their neighbors.

“Clearing the streets will be a long process,” he said. “It takes three vehicles including a Payloader to clear every street. We’re going street-by-street. I know people are frustrated, but we’re doing everything we can.”

He said that the city has called in private contractors to help out, but even with the extra hands, it will take at least a day or two for travel in the city to get back to something that looks like normal.

“We received 36 inches of snow, and the drifts are six feet in places,” Blake said. “And I hear there’s another nor’easter arriving on Valentine’s Day.”

Man freezes to death in Bridgeport

Saturday, February 9, 2013 by:John Burgeson
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BRIDGEPORT — A 53-year-old man was found dead under the snow outside his house on Old Town Road Saturday afternoon, officials said.

Police and firefighters were dispatched to a house on Old Town Road near Park Avenue at about 12:20 p.m. on what was described as possible hypothermia cardiac arrest.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police established that the man was last seen alive by family members between 10 and 10:30 Friday night.

He was discovered by a relative who was clearing snow this afternoon. The cause of death has not been determined.

Herbst: “Never seen anything like this”

Saturday, February 9, 2013 by:John Burgeson
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Tim Herbst, the first selectman of  Trumbull, said that Nemo was, without question, the worst winter storm he’s seen.

“I’m 32 years old, and I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” he told the Post Saturday morning.

“At least we have power, and we all have to be thankful for that,” he said. “Because if we lost power, it would have been worse than Sandy, with these six- and seven-foot-high drifts.”

Herbst said that he’ll be meeting with his DPW chief John Marsilio today and one of the things they’ll be talking about will be getting help from private contractors.

“It’s to the point where there’s so much snow, you’re going to have to put in in Payloaders and move it someplace else,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Fairfield, First Selectman Mike Tetreau said on the town’s website that abandoned cars have “complicated our clean-up efforts.”

He also said that all emergency respoders are “on holdover” because they can’t get home and their replacements can’t get to work.

“Even our snow plows were getting stuck,” he said.

Tetreau said that some side streets and particularly the dead-ends won’t be cleared until Sunday afternoon or evening.