RIDGEFIELD -- Tree by tree, downed pole by downed pole, road by road, the U.S. National Guard took back the town.
When troops arrived Tuesday afternoon, there were about 125 roads in town blocked by trees downed by Tropical Storm Irene.
When they left Thursday afternoon, they'd reversed that.
"All our roads are deemed passable,'' First Selectman Rudy Marconi said Thursday afternoon.
"I'm so happy,'' said Jean O'Connor, as the Guard arrived to cut apart the felled maple that was blocking Fire Hill Road, along with the utility pole it took down with it. "They're here. They'll get it done."
The Guard unit -- the 192nd Multi-Functional Engineer Battalion -- is based in Stratford. Since there's no record of the guard being deployed in town in the 1955 flood, this might have been its first Ridgefield deployment in town history (It may be argued that since the guard's lineage goes back to the Colonial militia, it made an earlier appearance here, fighting the British in the Battle of Ridgefield in 1777).
But history mattered less to town residents than the boots on the ground and the chain saws in tree limbs this week.
"It's the first sign of progress,'' said Gene Gaisser, of Topstone Road, who watched with his family as the guard cleared a huge fallen locust tree from the road in front of their house. "We wouldn't have gotten this far without them,'' said Lanny Byers, who lives across Topstone Road from the Gaissers. Both families have been without power since 2 a.m. Sunday morning.
Maj. Charles Jaworski Jr., the battalion's executive officer, said working to help communities is one of the guard's two tasks -- serving overseas is the other. "We have a federal and a state mission,'' Jaworski said. "The state mission is to respond to help communities after a natural disaster.''
So that while guard members get trained for combat, they also are up on tree removal -- all guard members are licensed chain saw operators, Jaworski said.
And since all the guard members on duty are young, none served during Hurricane Gloria in 1985, not to mention the flood of 1955.
Irene's damage came as a bit of a revelation. Before arriving here, the unit had gone to flood-damaged Bristol and the storm-beaten town of East Haven.
In Ridgefield, Jaworski said, seeing the number of utility poles and lines and trees down was depressing as it was impressive.
"I've never seen this level of destruction,'' he said.
But the two-and-a-half days the guard spent in town made an "incredible'' difference. Marconi said.
"They allowed us to clear roads that were still blocked,'' he said. "We'll be forever thankful to each and every one of them.''
But what Irene wrought, Marconi said, also showed the failure of Connecticut Light & Power Co., and its parent company, Northeast Utilities, in its ability to respond to a crisis. Although the roads are now cleared, Marconi said the town -- which had no power Sunday -- was still is 60 percent in the dark. That meant about 18,000 residents were without electricity for a fifth day.
"We need to think about this,'' Marconi said. "We don't have a plan to deal with a disaster like this. We need to put words into action.''
Contact Robert Miller
at bmiller@newstimes.com
or at 203-731-3345.
When troops arrived Tuesday afternoon, there were about 125 roads in town blocked by trees downed by Tropical Storm Irene.
When they left Thursday afternoon, they'd reversed that.
"All our roads are deemed passable,'' First Selectman Rudy Marconi said Thursday afternoon.
"I'm so happy,'' said Jean O'Connor, as the Guard arrived to cut apart the felled maple that was blocking Fire Hill Road, along with the utility pole it took down with it. "They're here. They'll get it done."
The Guard unit -- the 192nd Multi-Functional Engineer Battalion -- is based in Stratford. Since there's no record of the guard being deployed in town in the 1955 flood, this might have been its first Ridgefield deployment in town history (It may be argued that since the guard's lineage goes back to the Colonial militia, it made an earlier appearance here, fighting the British in the Battle of Ridgefield in 1777).
But history mattered less to town residents than the boots on the ground and the chain saws in tree limbs this week.
"It's the first sign of progress,'' said Gene Gaisser, of Topstone Road, who watched with his family as the guard cleared a huge fallen locust tree from the road in front of their house. "We wouldn't have gotten this far without them,'' said Lanny Byers, who lives across Topstone Road from the Gaissers. Both families have been without power since 2 a.m. Sunday morning.
Maj. Charles Jaworski Jr., the battalion's executive officer, said working to help communities is one of the guard's two tasks -- serving overseas is the other. "We have a federal and a state mission,'' Jaworski said. "The state mission is to respond to help communities after a natural disaster.''
So that while guard members get trained for combat, they also are up on tree removal -- all guard members are licensed chain saw operators, Jaworski said.
And since all the guard members on duty are young, none served during Hurricane Gloria in 1985, not to mention the flood of 1955.
Irene's damage came as a bit of a revelation. Before arriving here, the unit had gone to flood-damaged Bristol and the storm-beaten town of East Haven.
In Ridgefield, Jaworski said, seeing the number of utility poles and lines and trees down was depressing as it was impressive.
"I've never seen this level of destruction,'' he said.
But the two-and-a-half days the guard spent in town made an "incredible'' difference. Marconi said.
"They allowed us to clear roads that were still blocked,'' he said. "We'll be forever thankful to each and every one of them.''
But what Irene wrought, Marconi said, also showed the failure of Connecticut Light & Power Co., and its parent company, Northeast Utilities, in its ability to respond to a crisis. Although the roads are now cleared, Marconi said the town -- which had no power Sunday -- was still is 60 percent in the dark. That meant about 18,000 residents were without electricity for a fifth day.
"We need to think about this,'' Marconi said. "We don't have a plan to deal with a disaster like this. We need to put words into action.''
Contact Robert Miller
at bmiller@newstimes.com
or at 203-731-3345.
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