By all accounts, it was a storm of historic proportions -- based on the height of the waves, the extent of the flooding and the massive number of power outages.
And like the rest of Connecticut's coastline, the Laurel Beach neighborhood in Milford was no exception.
The surge of nearly four feet of water rushed in with high tide at about 11 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 28, and flooded Milford Point Road and side streets.
Terry Kinsella, a resident of 8th Avenue, said she was watching the waves from higher ground. They were smashing into the beachfront homes and sending salty spray high into the air. It was worse than Hurricane Gloria and any other storm she experience in the 35 years of living at Laurel Beach.
"I've never seen it like that," she said. "The water was just wild."
My house on Sand Street, which we evacuated on Saturday evening, had about six to eight inches inside at the height of the flooding. The water line on the ground-level garage was nearly four feet high.
At least one other resident of the street returned to a similiar situation. Other neighbors were airing out their garages, talking about the storm in small groups. A few had beers in hand. Several couches and some furniture were in the street outside one home -- seemingly put there to dry, or to throw away.
Up the street and on higher elevation, Kinsella was assessing the damage at the Laurel Beach Association building.
A large tree had fallen onto the roof. The bulk of the tree rest on the roof and a portion that had snapped off lay on the ground on the other side of the building. The impact forced the corner of the building to separate, causing what Kinsella and another resident called a major structural issue.
The tree came down at about 6 a.m. with a loud bang, one resident said.
Across the street, what is normally a grassy field had been converted into an impromptu parking lot -- a safe place for residents to keep their cars during the storm.
Now that the storm has passed, the cleanup begins. One major component of that will be restoring power, a process that could take some time. Kinsella said it took five days for power to come back after Gloria.
