Hello everyone,

With Hurricane Henri ready to make landfall today, it dawned on me that this storm will likely be the first serious "test" of the Shore Line Trolley Museum's recent flood mitigation efforts.

As many of you know, the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven CT sits along one of the tidal estuaries of Long Island Sound. Due to the many floods that have adversely impacted their collection over the years, the trolley museum embarked on a significant flood mitigation program called "Elevating the collection" a number of years ago.

The main portion of the project was finished in 2018 when two new "elevated" carbarns were completed. These new car barns were constructed much higher than the surrounding lands with the intent of keeping most (if not all) of the collection out of the flood plain as much as possible.

Hurricane Henri is projected to make landfall on the east end of Long Island, roll across Long Island, and strike land again in Connecticut. This storm will be as close to a "bullseye" strike on the Shore Line museum as can possible be accomplished by Mother Nature.

I was curious to start a discussion about this impact because I believe this may be the first time a transportation museum took steps to build a significant flood mitigation project which was specifically designed to safeguard its collection from a catastrophic storm event and then had that infrastructure tested by mother nature in real time.

I'm curious if any of the Shore Line Trolley Museum volunteers can provide some feedback on how their efforts paid off.

Did the new infrastructure do what it was intended to do?

Did the new carbarns withstand hurricane force winds?

Did the few cars which had to be left outside suffer any unexpected storm damage?

Since a good portion of the museum's car shops still remain in the flood plain, how did those older structures hold up compared to the new buildings?

Many museums today often have to debate the costs vs. benefits of expensive flood mitigation projects. Due to the arrival of Hurricane Henri in Connecticut, we'll be able to see the actual results of spending money on specific flood mitigation infrastructure in real time. It would be nice to have a discussion on the subject of flood mitigation projects since we'll learn how well Shore Line faired in the next 24 hours.

Hopefully a few of Shore Line's volunteer will be able to chime in with some timely feedback as to how their new carbarns faired in this storm!

Good luck to all those in harm's way today. Be safe!