Longtime Hartford homeowner Ken Green says he's proud to be born and raised in the capital city, but chronic flooding along his block of Granby St., in the Blue Hills neighborhood, is a headache.
"It gets pretty bad," says Green. "We happen to be at one of the lowest points on the street, and the drainage can't cover the amount of rain, so it piles up and floods our basement."
Torrential rain in August and September, which swamped much of the Northeast, made the flooding of Green's house much worse than usual.
"This is... the worst I've had since I've been here... We had about 4-5 feet surrounding the house, I had about 2 feet in the basement, I lost everything in the basement," says Green, who also had his car totaled by floodwater.
While acknowledging infrastructure concerns that could take years and many millions of dollars to correct, Mayor Luke Bronin says the City of Hartford is offering funds to help homeowners and small businesses cover some of their expenses from those summer floods.
The new Flood Mitigation Assistance Program will grant up to $7,500 per home, up to $500,000 total. Mayor Bronin explains these are city funds, made possible, in part, due to federal relief.
"The eligible expenditures will include clean-up, environmental remediation, mold remediation," says Bronin. "It will also include any work... to try to make particular homes more resilient to flooding in the future."
It's money that's significant to Green, after insurance covered only part of what was lost.
"I had about a $10,000 loss in the basement, with half of that being covered, and about a $10,000 loss in the shed, with none of that being covered."
In the long term, Bronin admits that Hartford's drainage infrastructure must change, especially as climate change presents stronger, more frequent storms: "You've got a system that's just not build to handle what it's being asked to handle."
Homeowners who were impacted by this summer's storms can contact Hartford's Housing Division at (860) 757-9030, or e-mail Shawana.Bowens@hartford.gov. Business owners impacted can call (860) 757-9526, or e-mail Kylah.Hudson@hartford.gov.
