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State officials announced new funding for businesses affected by the devastating flash-flooding that hit southwestern Connecticut last weekend, as they pledged to continue working to secure long-term federal funding to support the towns in the region as they rebuild from what has been described as a “thousand-year storm.”
“Today we are announcing a $5 million grant program, which will provide up to $25,000 per affected business,” said Daniel O’Keefe, commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, during a news conference held in Seymour, one of the towns hardest hit by last week’s flooding. “This is intended to be stop-gap funding, so we wanted to come in very quickly and provide that funding while we continue to pursue and await federal funds. Businesses can apply for everything from cleanup to their lost inventory, to their lost revenue.
According to O’Keefe, applications for the program will go live Sept. 3. The state’s goal is to begin getting money out into the community on a rolling basis as early as one week from application day. Anyone with questions or feedback is asked to reach out to [email protected].
Gov. Ned Lamont described the disaster that befell Seymour and other towns in the area.
“Right here, over here at the family diner. You know, been here since 2014. This is a family place. It says where customers become family. You see an enormous hole in the wall,” Lamont saide. “That’s where the water rushing by and took out the wall. Same thing happened down at the nail spot. Same thing happened in Woodland Wines where the water was right up to the roof. And this all happened in an hour and a half. As sudden as that can be. And I’m usually, you know, a bit of a skin flint is my reputation. But sometimes you see the scope of the tragedy. You know, it’s really important for all of us to step up and do the right thing. And then err on the side of generosity. And that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Local business owners expressed the need for assistance from the state as they begin the process of rebuilding their lives.
“As all of you know, we came Monday morning and it was a disaster for all of us,” said Mike Abe, owner of 67 Diner located in the Klarides Village Plaza in Seymour. “I lost 67 Family Diner. I lost from forks and spoons to walk-in coolers. I lost everything. And on behalf of all, I’m asking, please, please, please, help us as soon as possible. Everybody knows 67 Family Diner. And we need to come back stronger and better. And my family, my wife, and I will do the best that we can. But we still need a little help. So please, governor, we ask you to do your best as soon as possible to get this plaza running as soon as possible.”
Themis Klarides, co-owner of the Klarides Village Plaza and former House minority leader, thanked the governor for his swift action to support the victims of the storm and the community for coming together in a time of need.
“Our grandfather started this and our father and our uncle built it. And we are a family business, but they [their plaza tenants] are our family,” she said. “And we have done everything and will continue to do everything we can to help them build back better and stronger. But we need help. And we need it yesterday. You know, as somebody who was in politics, I understand how difficult these things are. But I also understand this is a one-in-a-thousand-year storm and nobody was expected – and you couldn’t prepare for it. So it’s not as if these people didn’t prepare properly.”
Her sister, current state Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria, R-Seymour, recognized all the people who volunteered their help so far during the cleanup.
“And we want to say thank you to the community,” Klarides-Ditria said. “We always say we’re a small community, but we’re mighty. We had people from all over the state come and help our business owners to remove product from their store.”
Commissioner Katie Dykes of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) addressed the reality that communities must prepare for more frequent and extreme weather events.
“According to the Northeast Regional Climate Center, the Northeast has seen a roughly 60% increase in the number of days with extreme precipitation. And that means that these types of events and risks are becoming more challenging to manage,” Dykes said. “So DEEP has provided, with the support of the governor and the legislature, the DEEP Climate Resilience Fund, where we provided planning grants for municipalities. We’re going to be opening up in September to provide for matching funds for municipalities that want to pursue federal FEMA infrastructure funding.”
Dykes also announced that DEEP would be providing on-call resilience contractor services to the municipalities and communities affected by the storms to help with major infrastructure decisions and projects that will need to be undertaken as the communities begin rebuilding.
US Sen. Richard Blumenthal echoed her statements regarding climate change resilience.
“Simply repairing and replacing what was there before ain’t gonna cut it. Back to normal is not enough,” Blumenthal said. “We know that the thousand-year floods are coming every five years or 10 years. Building back to normal is not enough. We need to build back better with the resilience that’s required to contain the Little River when it becomes big and it does huge damage. And that’s why we have the Jobs and Infrastructure Act with tens of billions of dollars. We’re not going to be limited to FEMA or its resources. We’re not going to be limited to the money that’s for repair and replacement and recovery. We need money to go into investment in resilience from those tens of billions of dollars that have been appropriated, invested through the bipartisan infrastructure act.”
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