Sandy leaves a mess in Branford

BRANFORD, Conn. (WTNH) -- It wasn't snow, but sand folks were shoveling out of their driveways in Branford.

Trees littered roads, and power lines are still on streets.

Sandy left four feet of water in the Mendillo's basement.

"She was like we're not going to live here anymore until we realized it wasn't as bad as we expected, so we have a different outlook on it," said Jim Mendillo. "Last year was a lot worse because there was a stink in the house from the muddy water in the basement."

Down the road a tree still sits on the home. 74-year-old Richard Massuco already cut down two which toppled at his girlfriend's house.

"I'm the outdoor man," Massuco said.

"She's lucky to have you," said Stephanie Simoni.

"Well thank you very much and I'm very lucky and fortunate to have her," Massuco said.

There are so many trees down in so many places, crews are just getting to work. On 7th Ave., you can see a tree took out a transformer. Leaving many residents in the dark.

"We have a generator in the garage and we have one line to the refrigerator because we have to keep our wine cold," said Massuco.

However, they couldn't keep their creamer cold at Caron's corner.

Family and employees spent their day tossing food.

"We've just been working non-stop," said Craig Evans, Caron's Corner manager. "Even though the stores been closed we've been working non-stop trying to save stuff and now trying to get rid of stuff."

Their meat section is wiped clean, so are vegetables and dairy. They plan to open Thursday, but this is a huge financial storm for them.

"Our insurance adjusters were still here, but we're not going to get coverage for everything," said Evans, "but it is definitely a huge hit for us and it's going to take us a long time to recoup."