Flood — Hartford, Connecticut

2011-08-28 · near Bristol, Hartford, Connecticut

Event narrative

Four to ten inches of heavy rain from Tropical Storm Irene resulted in the Pequabuck River overflowing its banks. This led to flooding on roads and homes along the river throughout Bristol. Flooded roads ran approximately three and a half feet deep. A 46 year old man went canoeing in floodwaters. He drowned when his canoe capsized and he was unable to make it to shore. At least 50 people were evacuated from areas around the river, and took shelter at Chippens Hill Middle School. The river flooding undermined at least 7 feet of Route 72 eastbound, washing out this portion of the road. Numerous houses and businesses were affected by the flooding. Forty high water rescues took place in Bristol.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Irene formed east of the Caribbean island of Dominica, part of the Lesser Antilles region, on the afternoon of August 20. Irene moved through the Caribbean and up the east coast of the United States making landfall twice. She first made landfall as a Category 1 Hurricane near Cape Lookout, North Carolina around 7:30am on August 27, then moved offshore again during the evening. She then made a 2nd landfall, again as a Category 1 Hurricane at 540am on August 28 near Little Egg Inlet in New Jersey. She moved over New York City and then into southeastern New York State and Connecticut as a Tropical Storm a few hours later. By the end of the evening of the 28th, Irene was crossing the U.S./Canada border having produced significant amounts of rain, storm surge, inland and coastal flooding, and wind damage across southern New England and much of the east coast of the United States.

In Southern New England, the minimum surface pressure recorded was 976.9mb taken at Barnes Municipal Airport in Westfield, Massachusetts. The storm surge experienced along the coast was generally in the two to four foot range with a high of 4.78 feet at Fox Point in Providence, Rhode Island. The highest sustained windspeed was 54 knots (62 mph) at the Physical Oceanographic Real Time System station at Conimicut Light in Narragansett Bay, RI. The highest sustained wind speed on land was 38 knots (44 mph) recorded on the Automated Surface Observing Systems at both Barnstable Municipal Airport in Hyannis, MA (KHYA) and Logan International Airport in Boston, MA (KBOS). Rainfall amounts ranged from nearly zero (0.03 at Nantucket Memorial Airport - ACK) to nearly 10 inches (9.92 in Conway, MA).

Despite the relatively low wind speeds, sustained winds over a 6 to 12 hour long duration resulted in widespread tree damage and resulted in power outages to roughly half a million customers throughout the state. Some of these customers did not get their power back until the Friday following the storm (some five days later). Durring the passage of Tropical Storm Irene, the winds resulted in $60M in property damages and inland flooding resulted in 1 fatality and $8M in property damages.

Bunnell Brook in Burlington had its third worst flood on record. The Farmington River reached its highest levels since Tropical Storms Connie and Diane in 1955.

The collective effects of Tropical Storm Irene on August 28, resulted in 1 fatality, 0 injuries, and $127.3M in property damage in the following counties: Barnstable, Bristol, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, and Worcester (all in MA), Hartford, Tolland, and Windham (all in CT), Cheshire and Hillsborough (all in NH), and Bristol, Providence, Kent, Washington, and Newport (all in RI).

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.6739, -72.9758)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 345209. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.