The Point At Westport

Westport's East Beach Road is impassable

WESTPORT — East Beach Road along the town's shoreline has been hit hard by Tropical Storm Irene.

Poles and wires are down, the road is flooded, and waves are crashing across the roadway, which is also covered with debris, town officials said today.

“The road is totally impassable. Right now it's underwater,” Fire Chief Brian R. Legendre said.

There also is flooding in low-lying areas of Westport Point.
Westport officials closed East Beach Road at 6 p.m. Saturday and it will remain closed until further notice, according to Legendre.

Police barricades have been established at Route 88 and Drift Road and on Horseneck Road, preventing motorists from gaining access to the area.

An officer stopped a reporter from accessing the Horseneck area at Route 88 and Drift Road about 8:45 a.m. today, saying conditions on East Beach Road were “hazardous.”

Richard M. Spirlet, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said officials won't know until the storm passes whether the road has been damaged.

Spirlet said selectmen ordered the closure of East Beach Road at an emergency meeting on Friday, telling the summer residents they had until 6 p.m. on Saturday to move their mobile homes.

He said Westport officials will meet 8 a.m. Monday at the Hix Bridge Fire Station to assess the damage from Hurricane Irene.

Legendre said there are scattered power outages across the town from trees and limbs that have taken down power lines.

As of 11:45 a.m. today, the fire chief said some Westport residents have been without power for about three hours. He didn't know how many households are without power.

Freyre, Herbert Beat Field and Irene at Westport | The Daily Weston

WESTPORT, Conn. – Norwalk's Eneas Freyre  was in a hurry Saturday. The Norwalk triathlete had biked to Compo Beach to run the  Westport Road Runners 9.3 mile run at Compo Beach, and was scheduled to teach a class at Target Training right after. Plus, there was the little matter of Hurricane Irene looming over the procedings.

Freyre made short work of the compeititon, finishing in 52:52, nearly three minutes ahead of runner-up Luke McCambley of Westport. McCambley, who ran 55:49, exclaimed "What's that guy on?" when he finished, followed by James Osborn in 56:56. Freyre is preparing to run the World Duathlon Championships next month in Spain. He won his third straight age group title in the duathlon earlier this year. He didn't stick around for his award, biking away to the class almost immediately after finishing.

In the women's race, Darien's Liz Herbert got a measure of revenge on Mary Zengo of Wilton, avenging her loss in the 5.9 mile race earlier this summer. Hebert, who finished eighth in her age group behind two Olympians at the prestigious Falmouth Road Race two weeks ago, found the cool but damp conditions to her liking, pulling away from Zengo at the midway point to win in 1:02:56, with Zengo back in 1:04.02. "I guess the weather was a lot like Falmouth," Herbert said. "But the course was a lot hillier." Bonnie Averbach of New York, McCambley's girlfriend, finished third among women in 1:07.14.

There were 104 finishers in the race, which coincided with an 11-mile race in Norwalk. The summer races in Westport had several record fields in events this year.

The Westport series concludes Saturday with a 10-mile run at Staples High School. All of the Westport races begin at 8 a.m. For more information, log on to the Westport Road Runners website .

Have you been a part of any of the record fields at Westport this summer?