Helen Bradshaw, who lives in Hartford’s Blue Hills neighborhood, says that when the remnants of Hurricane Ida arrived in Connecticut in September, her home of 40 years and two cars in her driveway were flooded.
“I had to do a lot of sanitizing, and I’m still working on cleaning stuff up,” Bradshaw said.
Now officials in Hartford have a new fund set up to help Bradshaw and about 50 others. On Monday, Mayor Luke Bronin introduced a $500,000 program for city residents who suffered property damage from three big storms that hit Connecticut in late summer.
“In a lot of cases, it’s not going to cover all of their costs, but we think it’s important to try and help out,” Bronin said.
Residents can get up to $7,500 each.
Bronin said the increasing frequency of severe weather resulting from climate change -- like the storm that flooded Bradshaw’s home -- will require officials to respond better.
“We’re going to have to do a lot of work as a country, as a state and as a community to build more resilient infrastructure,” Bronin said. “It also means we’re going to have to provide some ways of giving some relief to those folks who are affected.”
Bradshaw said the fund will help her recoup costs associated with the damage.
“Just maintain what I’ve already spent and already had to recover,” she said.
Hartford home and business owners can apply for Flood Mitigation Assistance Program dollars at www.hartfordct.gov or call a representative from the city’s Housing Division at 860-757-9030.
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