Do cats swim?

We had a flash flood race through low-lying areas in Southbury today flooding homes, golf courses, athletic fields and pastures in a matter of hours. Everything was fine this morning when people went to work or school, but at eleven o’clock, calls went out to residents near the river telling them to get out as there was a rush of water coming downriver, fast. When we arrived just after noon, the fire marshal was putting in a call to the power company to cut electricity less than a week after it had been restored. It peaked by one o’clock and by five it had receded from all but a few of the low lying homes.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like for someone to come home after working all day only to find their house filled with mud and silt from a flash flood that came and went in the few hours that they were gone. Residents said it was worse than the floods they had after Tropical Storm Irene. In fact, life for most people affected by high water during Irene had just started to return to normal.

I think these two cat bird baths say it all. They were outside the door of a house filled with a couple of feet of river water, for the second time in less than two weeks, and the third time this year. Like the cats, people must be hanging on by their toes to stay afloat, especially when they live on Flood Bridge Road.