First she tried to crash a Lighthouse Point wedding; the indomitable bride laughed her off. Then she flooded a Morris Cove intersection; the neighbors bragged about their “new lake” while local kids played in the water.
“She” was Tropical Storm Hanna. She blew through New Haven on Saturday night, bringing sheets of rain and fierce winds with her. New Haven, and especially flood-prone Morris Cove, was ready.
Assistant Fire Chief Ralph Black, who was overseeing the Fire Department’s storm response, spent the evening stationed near the flood-prone Dean Street in Morris Cove, keeping an eye on rising water and overseeing pumping. Debbie (pictured above), who lives on the block and declined to give her last name, was checking the water levels with a yardstick while her neighbor’s kids played in their new swimming hole.
Nearby, in the carousel house at lighthouse point, Kristyn O’Connell and Luigi Cappetta were celebrating their wedding day with dozens of friends and family despite the lashing rain and churning ocean outside. They weren’t about to let a little tropical storm ruin their special day
Prepared
Just before 6 p.m. on Saturday, Assistant Black (pictured) and Master Mechanic Tony Capuano were parked in a white NHFD sedan at the south end of Dean Street. They peered through the intermittent rain into the water channel that runs between the road and the Tweed Airport runway.
“The water’s at a dead standstill,” said Black. He was looking for signs that the tide was on its way out, which would mean there was less danger of flooding. Low tide was scheduled to begin at around 5 p.m.
Taking a cruise up Dean Street, Black pointed out the large pumps (pictured), stationed at regular intervals, that the fire department had set up on Friday. Dean Street has historically had serious flooding problems, but Black said that the street has had fewer water problems since the installation of new “duck bill valves” on its drains last year. “They work pretty well,” he said.
The city was prepared for the worst, with extra pumps and generators on hand, as well as truckloads of sand ready to deploy to hold back rising water. Black said that the Fire Department also had pumps ready for any low lying areas in the city, like underpasses. “But first we worry about households,” he said.
Seeing no sign of rising water on Dean Street, Black stopped by the Morris Cove fire station, where the fire department’s flat-bottomed rescue boat was on hand in case it was needed to evacuate homes.
Morris Cove Captain John Rourke (pictured, at right) said that his team was prepared for the storm. “We’re always ready,” he said. “That’s our job right?”
Bumping fists with Rourke, Black climbed back in the car and continued on to Lighthouse Point Park, where a few brave souls were walking the wet and windy beach. After taking a turn through the park, he pointed the car back towards Dean Street. On the way out, Black gestured towards the carousel house. “There’s a wedding going on over there,” he said.
Wet Wedding
Sure enough, despite the buckets of rain and the driving winds, the carousel house was all lit up and decorated in red and white. A wedding party in full swing.
Near the open door by the beach, cousins of the bride Ed and Michael Tierney (pictured) stood with a kilted Jason Hall (“I’m the wedding bagpiper”). Looking out at the frothy ocean, the cousins said they weren’t worried about the storm.
“The Irish don’t give up,” said Ed proudly.
“The water’s not gonna come up here,” said Michael. “If it did, I think it’d be fun.”
Inside, the bride and groom — Kristyn O’Connell and Luigi Cappetta — were having their wedding photos taken in front of the carousel.
“That’s my luck,” said O’Connell with a laugh. She and Cappetta had picked out their wedding date a year ago and found out last week that it was going to coincide with the arrival of Tropical Storm Hanna. They had originally planned to have an outdoor ceremony under the nearby beach pavilion and had to move the wedding inside at the last minute.
“Yesterday the lighthouse staff was here filling up sandbags,” O’Connell said. She said that the sandbags and wet/dry vacs were at the ready to protect the carousel. The caterers were wearing raincoats. There were a couple of guys with big umbrellas in charge of walking wedding guests to the bathrooms in the next building.
Despite the weather, O’Connell said that the wedding was well attended. “I think everyone’s here,” she said, looking around at the wedding party in their dark suits and crimson gowns.
In addition to a poorly timed tropical storm, O’Connell was dealing with some other wedding-day adversity. “I was in the emergency room two nights ago,” she said, explaining the small band-aid near her armpit. “An abscess burst inside my body.” The bride said that she was doing fine.
“We’re going to party until the power goes out,” said a bridesmaid.
A New Lake
Back on Dean Street, the rain had picked up. While Dean itself showed no signs of flooding, the nearby intersection of Concord Street and Morris Causeway was completely submerged.
Chris Kobierowski, wearing a cut-off shirt reading “It must suck to be you,” was outside getting soaked, smoking a cigarette, and walking his tiny white dog.
Black was parked near the two large pumps at the south end of Dean, which were now cranking away, trying to drain the intersection. He was charting the course of the storm by means of a small doppler image on his Nextel Blackberry. “The peak’s not here yet,” he said. “We’re in pretty good shape. This isn’t the worst.”
“I have a lake!” Debbie exclaimed, standing in front of her house near the Concord-Morris intersection wearing a fuzzy green cowboy hat. She bought her house less than a month ago and was excited to see that she now owned “lakefront property.” “The price of my property just went up!” she said with a laugh.
“It’s just water,” she said, unconcerned by the flooding. “It’s nothing to get worked up about.”
Debbie moved out into the street with a yardstick to take a water level measurement.
“How deep is it?” shouted Kellie Crouch from her front steps across the street.
“Six inches,” shouted Debbie.
“This is nothing,” said Crouch, munching on a bag of crackers while her son and daughter played in the water with their friend. “Every time it rains this happens.”
“I’ve seen it get higher,” she said.
Luckily, it didn’t get any higher. Contacted by phone on Sunday afternoon, Black said that the water level stayed constant until about 10 p.m., when it started to go down.
“By 11:30 we were all done there,” he said. “It was a relatively quiet night around the city, compared to what we thought we were getting.”