After being largely spared by last week’s flooding, some Derby and Morgan residents didn’t get so lucky Sunday night.
Gisele Pion, 37, lives along Route 105 in Derby, right across from where the Clyde River feeds into Lake Salem. On Monday she arrived home after a weekend away to find her yard and basement covered in sticky mud.
The basement is where Pion says her two boys, ages 11 and 12, have their bedrooms.
“We’re going to start with getting their mattresses gone, all the carpets, everything’s ruined down there. So one step at a time is what we’re doing today," she said. “I am feeling pretty numb. Yeah. I think I’m a little overwhelmed and in a fog."
Pion also runs her holistic wellness business, Namaste Healings, from home. She says she’s had to cancel appointments for at least two days.
"The good thing is, is I do a lot of self-care, and I meditate every day, and I'm very grounded, so that's why I feel probably not like I'm going nuts," she said. "It just stinks, because I'm a single mother that doesn't get help, and now I have to lose some money also dealing with this... I’m sorry for everyone that’s going through it.”
Next door to Pion, almost-92-year-old Andy Gosselin managed to avoid damage to his home.
A thick layer of silt, however, covered his grassy backyard on Monday, and a swollen stream washed away a hand-built bridge anchored in by cement and steel pipes.
"It's all broken to pieces, but it's right there, they dug it out last night, the town of Derby removed it last night," Gosselin said.
His nephew, Skip, and Skip's wife, Valerie, helped retrieve the bridge and drag it back to the yard on Monday. Gosselin said he'd rebuild it.
"It was time to redo it, I guess," he said.
Gosselin has lived on this property for 55 years and says while it's flooded maybe eight or 10 times, it's never been quite this bad. He says there was 5 feet of water in his yard.
"This is the worst I've seen it here," he said.
Meanwhile in Morgan, residents woke up Monday to a flooded Seymour Lake.
By the early afternoon, the normally-clear waters turned brown with debris, and pieces of broken and submerged docks floated on the surface.
Bethany Howe is among those with beachfront property in town. Usually, she says, there’s about 50 feet of beach. But now the water was up to her foundation.
“We have a 20-foot boat, a jet ski, and a dock, and we woke up at 4:45 this morning and discovered none of it was there in front of our house," Howe said.
The Seymour Lake Association is asking boaters to be cautious and drive at no-wake speeds.
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