Pumping out the water

Clinton, Conn. (WTNH) - The hottest thing in town these days can be found at your local hardware store. People are lining up for pumps as some stores scramble to keep them in stock.

Sump pumps and shop vacs are in short supply and there's high demand for them around Connecticut. At Steward's Ace Hardware in Clinton, there's a line through the store.

"The phone's ringing non-stop, and all we can do is tell them when our next delivery comes in," Cherie Steward said.

Ken Butterworth was there before the store opened. What did he want? A pump big enough to do the job.

"What's it like at your house?"
"It's this deep (gestures to his hip). It's up there."

Everyone of the people at the store has a story. Some can measure their problem in feet -- they're generally the ones who's feet are in boots -- others just have a few inches of waters. But wet is wet.

Joe Pauloski of Westbrook said he has water coming up through the sump pump hole. "I don't have the sump pump, never had to use it in seven years that I lived in Westbrook, but it actually came up through the hole that they left for the sump pump."

Nancy Schultz of Killingworth got the last skimmer pump available. "It's like having gold," she said.

"It takes probably longer for us to unload the pumps off the truck then it does for them to go out the front door," Cherie Steward said.

They are going out the front door very quickly as people try dry out and regain control of their homes and their lives.

Amy Carlson of Clinton said the flooding at her home is "not too bad, just the basement. But the furnace went out and everything else seems to be okay so far."

The sooner she can get the water out, the better. "I'd like to take a shower -- and the heat -- I don't like being cold," she said.

The owner of Steward's isn't waiting for the next shipment to come in. He hooked a trailer to his pick-up truck and drove to the Ace Hardware warehouse in Albany, New York, to pick up as many pumps as he could carry. He was due back with what he got early in the afternoon.