Storm Leaves Trail of Damage

Traffic snarled to a near standstill in town just before rush hour today when a tree fell across West Broad Street and flooding from the intense rain left a section of the road under the railroad bridge impassable.

The flooding closed West Broad Street earlier this afternoon, while the tree fell on the same road, up the street, at approximately 4:30 p.m. A police officer on scene said the sizeable tree branch was lying atop power lines. Meanwhile, a car was stuck in water after it had reportedly attempted to drive through the flooded street, West Broad under the viaduct by Dunkin Donuts.

The road closures led to severe traffic backups on Main Street and all surrounding roads.

United Illuminating Company reported only one power outage in Stratford, which paled in comparison to the more than 3,000 and 4,000 without power in Bridgeport and Shelton, respectively, during the peak outage. Those numbers are now down to about 100.

The storm also kept Stratford firefighters busy today. The Stratford Fire Department Local 998, on its Facebook page, wrote:

"Flash flooding from heavy rains in Fairfield County kept Stratford Fire Rescue busy this afternoon with numerous calls, among them removing several stranded motorists from partially submerged vehicles and securing utilities for residents who suffered heavy flooding in their homes."

If you have photos of flooding or other damage from the storm, you can add them in the photo section or email them to gary.jeanfaivre@patch.com. And feel free to report what you saw in your neighborhood in the comment section.