“What am I going to do?”: floods wreak havoc on New England
Heavy rain continued this week in Connecticut, beginning with a storm Sunday night into Monday that dumped up to 10 inches of rain on the northwest corner of the state.
A town official in Norfolk reported that Rt. 272 had to be closed.
“A tremendous amount of rain for Norfolk in one day,”Norfolk public information officer Jon Barbagallo tweeted Tuesday. “In South Norfolk, where damage is the heaviest, rain totals may have exceeded 10 inches.”
The Housatonic River flooded in Kent. That meant residents of Preston Mountain Rd. had to evacuate from their homes,according to NBC Connecticut.
Later in the week as the Connecticut River surpassed flood stage, boats were displaced from docks in Glastonbury and Rt. 17A in Portland was under water. Connecticut Public surveyed the damage inflicted by flooding on a farm in Glastonbury.
Tony Botticello told Connecticut Public’s Patrick Skahill that hundreds of acres of his farm were ruined as rows of crops were overcome by brown water.
“We haven't picked an ear [of corn] yet and it's gone,” Botticello said. “What am I going to do?”
Connecticut wasn’t the only New England state under a flood watch.Vermont is reporting historic flooding after seeing its largest severe weather event since Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. Vermont Public Radio reported that as of 11am Monday, 19 people were ferried from their flooded homes to dry land.One person died.
A rescue team from Connecticut was deployed Monday to support efforts in Vermont.
Rain continued in the northeast Friday, putting parts of Connecticut under another flood watch.
Stafford hospital may stop delivering babies
Johnson Memorial Hospital, a member of the Trinity Health of New England network, has petitioned the state to approve the closure of its labor & delivery unit.
That could push Tolland County closer to becoming a “maternity care desert.” The March of Dimes defines maternity care deserts as any county in the United States without a hospital or birth center offering obstetric care and obstetric providers. After Windham Hospital and Rockville General Hospital stopped delivering babies, Johnson Memorial became the last hospital in the area to provide labor and delivery services.
A closure at Johnson Memorial would follow a trend: 60 percent of the hospitals that have stopped delivering babies in the United States since 2008 are located in rural areas. New Milford Hospital already closed its labor & delivery unit. Sharon Hospital may soon do so too.
“People say, ‘oh, New Milford closed, it was fine.’ They have highways to get people over to Danbury; we have these back roads,” said Dr. Edward Kavle, a pediatrician who cares for babies in Sharon’s pediatric intensive care unit. “And there are a lot of papers that tell us that any time over 25 minutes makes it incredibly dangerous for babies.”
Information gathered from Connecticut Public senior health reporter Sujata Srinivasan suggests the closures have to do with finances and that Medicaid coverage isn’t on par with what private insurers will pay for labor and delivery services.
Library leadership says sex education books can stay in the ‘tween-teen’ section
Lyme and Old Lyme residents wanted two books, “Let’s Talk About it: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships and Being a Human” by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan and “You Know, Sex: Bodies, Gender Puberty and Other Things” by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smith, to be removed from the “tween-teen” section of the Old Lyme-Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library, saying the sexual education materials weren’t age-appropriate.
But in a statement sent out earlier this week, members of the library’s board of trustees said the books would stay where they are.
“In regards to these books, The Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library recognizes that many materials are controversial and that any given item may offend some patrons,” the statement said. “The Board has affirmed its policy that selection of materials will not be made on the basis of anticipated approval or disapproval, but solely on the basis of the principles stated in the policy.”
The decision was reached by the board Tuesday, two weeks after a letter-to-the-editor of LymeLine.com in support of a book challenge was published.
“To be clear: we are not advocating banning any books. We are mindful of the conversations taking place nationally,” the letter read. “Our concern is specific to the age-appropriate content within the Teen/Tween room.”
The library’s board of trustees reminded patrons that young children aren’t permitted to be unaccompanied by adults in the library–and if a parent has a concern regarding their child visiting a section of the library, they may accompany them.
Frankie & Johnny premieres Fridays at 4:44 p.m. during All Things Considered on Connecticut Public Radio. Connecticut Public Radio’s Lesley Cosme-Torres, Patrick Skahill, and Sujata Srinivasan, contributed to this report.
