Wednesday marks a year since a series of storms closed one of Connecticut’s most iconic state parks. Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden has yet to reopen.
Sleeping Giant was hit by high winds and tornadoes that blew through the state in May of 2018. Lee Sawyer is with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
“Well, it’s a completely different landscape than visitors would have seen before the tornadoes. Massive amounts of trees have been removed from the parks. And it actually opens up some exciting opportunities for new kinds of landscapes and habitats – grassland and so on.”
Over the past year volunteers have removed thousands of trees from Sleeping Giant and DEEP has spent about $800,000 – so far – in repairs to the park and others that were damaged in the storms. The department says the Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to reimburse the state for most of the cleanup costs.
“There’s a tremendous amount of interest, people looking forward to going back into the park. It’s a great destination. And we’re really excited to get the park open again and let the public back. We’re all excited ourselves to get back into the park.”
Sawyer says Sleeping Giant is expected to open by June 21, the first day of summer.
