The Town of East Haven
Has Lifted Itself Above the Grade

East Haven, CT - Both in the winter and summer months the town of East Haven experienced flooding and East Haven’s firefighters were constantly evacuating and rescuing residents.

East Haven’s Cosey Beach is exposed to coastal flooding from hurricanes, nor’easters, and other severe storms. Inland riverine flooding originates from the Farm River.

In 1997, a community group formed an association to see what could be done for both riverine and coastal flooding. Joe Maturo was elected Mayor and began to make changes that would lift East Haven above the grade.

Mayor Maturo’s first step was to ask Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director Wayne Sandford to take the lead. Sandford and Mayor Maturo began meeting with residents to turn flooding concern and frustration into action items.

A prior grant of $250,000 from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection allowed the enlargement of an area underneath a bridge over the Farm River which had blocked water flow during river flooding. To raise awareness of the NFIP, educational fairs were held for the public. Within two years, East Haven was retuned to good standing in the NFIP.

East Haven was named as a Connecticut 2000 Project Impact community. Project Impact was a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) initiative to build disaster resistant communities. East Haven developed and implemented several projects with Project Impact dollars.

Coastal measures implemented included evacuation route signs, installation of shutters on residences as well as notification and preparedness information hand-delivered to coastal homes by firefighters within hours of a hurricane warning. However, the most exciting initiative was an effective and efficient notification system. A reverse 911 system was combined with flood-river gauges installed along the Farm River.

East Haven’s new rating as a Class 8 in the NFIP Community Rating System (CRS) means property owners receive a 10% discount on their flood insurance premiums with an average savings of $77 per policy for the 1,286 residents with flood insurance. The total community savings for East Haven is nearly $100,000.

This year at FEMA’s annual New England mitigation conference, Mayor Joe Maturo accepted an award for East Haven from FEMA Region I and the State of Connecticut recognizing the town’s outstanding efforts to improve the floodplain management program. Plans are underway for a major home elevation effort along Cosey Beach in 2008 and a final bridge enlargement will soon be under construction.