State rejects flood mitigation package for coastal towns

A house on Fairfield Beach Road in Fairfield was heavily damaged during Superstorm Sandy on Oct. 30, 2012. Sandy was one of the costliest storms in U.S. history, piling up some $70 billion in damage about $30 billion of which was insured, according to one estimate. Staff file photo by Autumn Driscoll.

A house on Fairfield Beach Road in Fairfield was heavily damaged during Superstorm Sandy on Oct. 30, 2012. Sandy was one of the costliest storms in U.S. history, piling up some $70 billion in damage about $30 billion of which was insured, according to one estimate. Staff file photo by Autumn Driscoll.

Out of dozens of coastal property owners from Greenwich to Milford who applied for grants to raise the elevation of their homes in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, not a single application was approved by the state, according to a decision letter that went out today.

Sources say the money is instead going to New Haven and Bridgeport to harden their infrastructure, a decision that has inflamed emergency management officials in a number of shoreline towns.

The municipalities expended considerable resources because they had to submit the applications on behalf of the homeowners.

“It was definitely eye-opening that no municipality had a single applicant granted,” Daniel Warzoha, Greenwich’s emergency management director, told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers on Monday. “That’s very disappointing. I think it sends some pretty poor messaging from the state to the people who pay taxes in this state.”

A request for comment was left Monday for the state Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, which is responsible for administering the grants.

The amount of funds available to homeowners in flood plains was said to be $16 million and was awarded to the state by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Homeowners had until early December to submit their applications to their for the flood mitigation aid, which required cities and towns to process the paperwork on their behalf.

There were 26 applications from Greenwich, 24 from Westport, 60 from Fairfield, 32 from Milford and an untold number from East Haven, according to unofficial estimates.

Neil Vigdor