WOODBURY, Conn. (WTNH) – Preventing tragedy after the death of a Connecticut State Police Sergeant.
Sergeant Brian Mohl was killed when he was in his police cruiser and was swept away by floodwaters in Woodbury.
The town now has something in mind to stop something like that from happening again.
There continues to be an outpouring of love in Woodbury for Mohl.
“It’s very sad,” said Marsha Brownell.
Mohl was swept away by floodwaters two weeks ago while in his police cruiser. Marsha Brownell says it happened near her home near Three Rivers Park.
“I feel terrible about the whole thing and I just hope something can be done to make the area safer,” Brownell said.
Woodbury’s Emergency Management Director told News 8 a plan is in place to put up floodgates on roads in the area that usually flood, like Jack’s Bridge Road and Jusdson Avenue.
“We’d like to see like the gates, well the posts would be down behind the guardrails or close to the end, so you can’t sneak around them,” said David Lampart, Woodbury Emergency Management Director.
David Lampart is also hoping the Connecticut Department of Transportation will foot the bill for floodgates on two state roads, Washington Road, which is Route 47, and Sycamore Avenue, which is Route 317. He says in the past, the tow has put up cones to warn drivers to stay off the flood-prone roads.
“You usually come back fifteen, twenty minutes and you’ll just see them all thrown to the side,” Lampart said. “This was talked about for many years because of the problem of people driving around cones.”
There’s no word on how much the floodgates would cost or when they would put in place.
“We only had a ballpark figure from a phone call that they could cost about, in the neighborhood of ten thousand a gate. You’re talking two sides of each gate, that’s four spots, eight sets,” Lampart said. “We have full support from state legislators, our local leaders are all on board, as well as public works and emergency services, so that’s half the battle right there.”
“We are hoping FEMA will give us a grant, which we’ll be applying for in the near future, which will cover up to 75 percent of the cost,” Lampart continued.