Torrential Rain Hammers The Valley
Thousands without power. Arcing wires trap residents in their homes. Flooded roads. Damaged businesses. Monday evening's intense rainstorm was a doozy in the Valley.
The skies turned dark in most of the Valley at about 6:30 p.m. or so.
An intense, heavy rain battered the area at about 6:45 p.m., as seen from this video from Hawthorne Avenue in Derby.
Notice the stairs on the far side of the street look more like a waterfall.
The rain was perforated by wind, bolts of lightning and bone-shaking thunder.
- THEN THERE WAS THE HAIL.
- Or as these little ones in Ansonia put it:"ICE BALLS! It's raining ice balls on Dunkin Donuts!"
- More Ansonia action . . .
Meanwhile, Twitter lit up with reports of large hail in Seymour . . .
More hail Derby . . .
- The freakish hail was one thing -- but the chaos that followed was another.
The storm's aftermath kept firefighters throughout the Valley busy until midnight.
In Ansonia, residents were trapped in their homes after live wires fell to the ground at the intersection of Wakelee Avenue and Hull Street. - Everyone was OK.Ansonia's Walt Smith, Jr. captured the arcing wires and Ansonia FD's reaction on video.
Watch as Ansonia firefighters talk to residents trapped in the house as the wires crackle and pop. Another angle on the incident. Video by Ron Burgess, Jr.
- Wakelee was impassable, as were parts of Route 34, Division Street, Pershing Drive.Even Derby's Hawthorne Avenue, was flooded, as Tom Lenart Sr.'s photo below shows.
