Residents of a Bridgeport neighborhood are demanding that the city address a chronic flooding problem on their street, saying that even moderate rain leaves the road underwater and sends water into their basements. People who live on Savoy Street have pointed to video from a storm two weeks ago, and again from Monday morning, as evidence of how quickly and how badly the water builds up on their block.
Part of the problem, neighbors say, is the lay of the land. The street sits between two hills, and residents say there are not enough storm drains to handle the runoff that collects at the bottom. They also say a nearby brook often overflows during heavy rain, turning the street into what they describe as a lake whenever the weather turns bad.
For those who live there, the flooding has become far more than an inconvenience. One resident said her cousin lost her car after getting stuck on the flooded road, where the vehicle broke down. "On a scale of one to 10, we're at an 11," she said. "We're furious. Nothing's getting done. We've been here forever, and we pay very high taxes here in Bridgeport."
Residents said that for a long time their complaints went unanswered, with the city not responding to their repeated requests for comment. Now, however, Bridgeport city officials and public works crews say they are looking into the chronic flooding issues after the residents on Savoy Street raised their concerns publicly about the state of their street.
City officials have offered their own explanation for the recurring problem. Residents say flooded basements are all but a certainty during rainstorms, partly because the neighborhood sits at the bottom of two hills and does not have enough storm drains. The city's director of public facilities said the biggest issue is that part of a waterway known as Oxbrook overflows during those rainstorms.
But fixing it is not straightforward. The director, Burgos, said access is the main obstacle, because the brook flows through dozens of private properties. "If you have like three or four properties, you have one cover. If one of them doesn't allow access to it, we really cannot get to it," he said, adding that crews risk creating damage to landscaping when they try to clean it out.
For now, there is no quick fix on the table. Burgos said the city is in the process of reaching out to the state for more money to address the problem, but with no real short-term solution available, residents on Savoy Street say they remain frustrated as they wait for the flooding to finally be brought under control.