By Peter Yankowski
New Haven Register, Connecticut.
WILTON, Connecticut — Police said two of their officers and a mother-son duo of Good Samaritans escorted CT Transit bus passengers to a station during Sunday’s storm after the bus became stuck in floodwaters.
After terminating the $300,000 agreement with Caldwell police, the county plans to use federal funds for the private arrangement, which will cost about $210,000.
“Please use an alternate route,” the Oxford Police Department posted on X. “And no, you cannot come and help with the ‘cleanup.'”
The policy discourages young officers from applying for jobs and prevents the department from hiring newcomers, said Larry Calderone, president of the city’s largest police union.
The Wethersfield City Council considered changing the city’s flag policy after facing backlash for not flying the flag following the death of police officer Aaron Pelletier.
The bus got stuck on the other side of Seeley Road while “attempting to turn around,” Wilton police said in a Facebook post.
The police department said the bus struck a roadblock after coming to a flooded section of road near the railroad crossing. The bus was “further blocked by the broken railroad barriers, which were stuck in the down position,” police said.
The approximately 30 passengers on the bus had to leave the vehicle and go into the water, police said.
“Two officers, with the assistance of a mother-son duo who live on Seeley Road, escorted all passengers and the bus driver to Cannondale station where they were picked up by a second bus,” police wrote.
Sunday’s weather event dropped at least a foot of rain in southwestern Connecticut after a line of thunderstorms formed across the region. The torrential rains caused flash flooding as far west as the Danbury metropolitan area and as far east as New Haven County and parts of Litchfield County.
In Oxford, two women died on Sunday after they were swept away by floodwaters, authorities said. Several people were trapped in cars, and firefighters in Oxford also rescued more than a dozen people who were trapped in a restaurant surrounded by the raging waters.
Wilton police said they wanted to “extend our gratitude to all of our residents,” including the mother and her son who helped transport the passengers. They said they “rose to the occasion and assisted our officers and their fellow citizens during this unprecedented event.”
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