MONROE, CT — Lili Michols and Peter Ehrismann live in a raised ranch atop Brookside Trail, a steep gravel road in Stevenson, so a forecast of heavy rain on Aug. 18, didn’t any raise alarm bells. After all, the home has stood for 36 years amid some of the worst storms, including Hurricane Sandy.
“We thought it was just rain,” Ehrismann recalled. “It wasn’t like anyone said we’d have tornadoes or a hurricane. We’re gonna get a lot of rain. I’ve seen rain before. No big deal.”
The couple was relaxing in their house that fateful afternoon, when flash floods wreaked havoc throughout the region. As a torrential rain came down, they heard a rumble, followed by a smash.
“I came out and saw a tree landed on my truck and pushed my car down the hill,” Ehrismann said.
Rain weakened the ground of a mountain of hill, towering behind the house, causing a landslide. A small section of trees slid down, flying over the retaining wall on the edge of the driveway.
Trees crushed Ehrismann’s blue Ford F-350, burying it in mud and debris, and his silver Mazda 3 was still suspended among bushes, halfway down a hill in the yard on Labor Day.
The power went out, so Ehrismann started cutting branches in front of the garage to get to the generator.
“Then I came outside and saw a tall birch twist and slide down the hill into the river,” Michols said of a tree behind wooden fencing along their driveway.
“We have to get out of here,” Ehrismann thought to himself.
“I was on the phone with Dave Clark, our neighbor, and he said, ‘you can’t get out. You have no road,'” Michols said.
Far down the driveway, a short ways in from Cottage Street, the Boys Halfway River overflowed and flooded, washing away half of Brookside Trail, leaving only large boulders with water flowing through it in its place.
“We had to hike out,” Michols said.
The couple walked across their front yard and into the woods to make their escape.
“We cut through someone’s yard on Cottage Street and a dog started barking,” Michols said. “The couple came out and said, ‘do you need help?’ ‘Yeah,’ we told them, ‘the trees were falling in our yard.'”
Michols has a grown daughter named, Lidia, whose boyfriend, Henry, agreed to pick them up at the old Post Office on Route 111 in Stevenson.
“He couldn’t get through 34,” Michols said. “It was closed. Larry and Mary Ellen, a nice couple, they gave us a ride to the commuter lot for 84 at exit 11, where Henry met us to take us to my parents.”
Michols, a reading specialist for grades six through eight at Jockey Hollow Middle School, said her parents live in a small age 55-and-older community in Newtown.
Aside from figuring out how to repair the damage to their property and the private road, which is not the town’s responsibility, Michols and Ehrismann, who owns Apex Door of CT, LLC, Garage Doors and Openers, had to find a way to get to work.
One of Ehrismann’s two work trucks only sustained minor damage to a side mirror and Michols’ Subaru is in good shape, but both vehicles are stranded, unable to cross the damaged road.
“My insurance won’t even get me a rental car, because it’s technically not damage,” Michols said of her car. “My sister lent me her car for a week and now we’re going to need a rental.”
Ehrismann had to buy a brand new work truck to keep his business afloat.
Insurance will cover the truck that was completely destroyed, but can’t get to the driveway to seize the damaged vehicle, holding up the payout.
On Monday, Ehrismann and Michols wore backpacks as they hiked through the woods alongside the destroyed section of road to get to their house, passing a downed utility pole with power lines on the ground. Eversource cannot get its trucks in to fix it and restore power to the house.
A patch of land with six trees on it had broken off and slid into the river. The trees are still standing.
The couple walked past a section of wooden fencing that had broken off by a damaged area near the top of their driveway. Tarps held down by sandbags are meant to redirect water to avoid further damage.
Ehrismann shoveled debris off his damaged truck and filled a wheelbarrow, digging it out in hopes the insurance company can get to it one day.
“We’ve been coming almost every day to pull things out … clothes to bring to my parents’ house,” Michols said.
She said the first things they recovered from their house were sentimental items, including photo albums. They lost most of the food in their refrigerator, but were able to save some things.
Costly repairs
Estimates to repair all of the property damage are easily in the six figures.
“I don’t know many people with six figures sitting around,” Ehrismann said. “You’re supposed to be covered by insurance. Nothing was covered.”
Though the damage to their home, which includes two broken windows and mud inside the garage, was not from a flood, Ehrismann said their homeowner’s insurance company told them they needed a “land movement policy” to be covered for a landslide.
“People don’t take all the parameters into consideration and then you’re left holding the bag,” he said of buying insurance. “They take the money and don’t cover anything.”
“It is a scam,” Michols said.
“Frankly, it seems criminal, like a Ponzi scheme,” Ehrismann said. “They take my money with no benefit.”
Michols said she emailed State Rep. Tony Scott, R-Monroe, and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, for help. “Tony Scott has been kind and responsive,” she said.
Michols and Ehrismann documented their damage and entered the data into an online Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DEMHS) portal, assisting in the effort for the cost of property damage in Connecticut to be high enough for Gov. Ned Lamont to apply for an emergency declaration from President Joseph Biden.
If the governor decides to apply and Biden makes the declaration, FEMA will be authorized to release financial reimbursement to the public and individuals under the Stafford Act.
Officials urge all home and business owners to document their damage, even if they do not think it will be covered, to paint an accurate picture of the disaster. Here is a direct link to the online portal.
Michols said some people she has spoken to fear they would be taking funding away from those who need it more, but she said that is not the case. She encourages everyone to document their damages, so Connecticut can meet the threshold for federal aid.
Compassionate people
Though Michols and Ehrismann received no help from insurance companies, they are benefiting from the generosity of people in the community. Their friend, Tracy Yanouzas started a GoFundMe page with the goal of raising $100,000 and, as of Monday night, $14,125 from 86 donations poured in.
“I’m so grateful for people’s donations,” Michols said. “It’s very moving. I know people have their own problems, so for them to contribute, it makes us feel hopeful — like there might be a way out.”
“It’s incredible,” Ehrismann said. “These really compassionate people who contributed something, it restores some belief in humanity and community that people would donate money to something for a complete stranger out of the goodness of their hearts.”
Michols said restoring the bottom of Brookside Trail, so they can get their vehicles out would be “a huge win”. Then they will have to start over, whether here or somewhere else.
“I bought the house 20 years ago for me and my daughter,” Michols said. “I wanted to be in Monroe for the good schools and I fell in love with the view and the quiet of being in nature, but nature has a dark side too.”
“I’ve been here 12-13 years,” Ehrismann said. “You hear the rush of the water, but we’ve never, ever seen rain like this. The cloud just hovered over and pounded us.”
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