Milford Storms Show Connecticut's Climate Reality
Fifteen years of increasingly severe storms have transformed Connecticut's shoreline communities. Milford residents face a new reality of evacuations and flooding.
The waves that crashed into Theresa Covaleski’s Milford home during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 left her stranded on the second floor, clutching important documents while water rushed through the downstairs rooms.
“The scariest part was hearing the wind and knowing the waves and the water were flowing underneath on the first floor,” Covaleski said.
Fifteen years of data tell a stark story: Connecticut’s shoreline communities now face storms with an intensity that longtime residents say they’ve never experienced before. Six of the eleven hurricanes and tropical storms to hit Connecticut since the 1950s have occurred after 2011, according to FEMA.
Covaleski and her partner Scott Digris have lived through the worst of it. After Irene ripped the porch off their Lawrence Court home and flooded the first floor, they began repairs. Before the work finished, Superstorm Sandy struck in 2012, destroying new windows and furnishings.
“Sandy was vicious,” Digris said.
The couple had lived in Milford since the 1960s and 1980s respectively, moving between four different shoreline houses that storms damaged before returning to their original home, now elevated 18.5 feet off the ground.
Bill Richards, Milford’s deputy director of emergency management, has watched the pattern repeat with each storm season.
“You always hear at the time of the storms when we’re evacuating the coast, ‘I never thought it would happen,’” Richards said. “Our weather patterns are changing.”
The numbers support what residents feel. During Tropical Storm Isaias in August 2020, over 40% of Milford residents lost power as wind gusts exceeded 60 mph. The storm brought scenes more typical of Florida hurricane season to Connecticut’s coast.
Rising ocean temperatures fuel the intensification. Waters have shown increases of up to nine degrees Fahrenheit as of June 2024, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Connecticut is falling behind in reaching its greenhouse gas reduction target set for the year 2030. For Milford residents, the policy debates feel distant compared to the immediate reality of preparing for the next storm season. Coastal evacuations have become routine, and the question isn’t whether severe weather will return, but when.