In Groton, Flooding, Road Closures and Power Outages as Storm Rolls In

The Director of Emergency Management reported flooding and road closures in Groton Monday, and urged people to follow police instructions to evacuate.

“It’s pretty ugly looking out the window to be honest with you," Director of Emergency Management Joseph Sastre said Monday. We had pretty decent flooding out there this morning with the high tide, and we kind of expect it will do that again.”

Flooding was reported in Mystic, on River Road, over the Poquonnock River and in Groton Long Point.

“Anything that usually floods did, and tonight it’s going to get pretty darn impressive,” he said.

Route 1 over the Poquonnock River was closed to traffic and there was a temporary road closure on River Road. But Sastre said these things tend to come and go as conditions change.

“We don’t have any permanent road closures due to storm damage at this point,” he said. “I think most people will pretty much stay at home, which is a good thing, and hopefully people will start to listen to us when we tell them to evacuate.”

The Red Cross shelter at Fitch High School had 130 people as of 11 a.m., along with 15 dogs, two cats and a rabbit.

Emergency personnel transported about a half dozen people to the shelter Sunday night and another dozen this morning, Sastre said.

He said if families wait much longer to evacuate, “Chances are, weren’t not going to be able to come get you.”

The governor issued an order earlier today closing the interstate to commercial traffic at 1 p.m., and to all non-emergency traffic at 4 p.m.

Connecticut Light & Power reported 2,976 people without power in Groton as of noon.

“We do have a whole boatload of CL&P folks and linemen here in town working on things, so I’m very happy with their response at this point,” Sastre said.