The town of Brookfield canceled its Memorial Day Parade as residents continue to recover from heavy storm damage when tornadoes hit the state earlier this month.

The local VFW still held their annual Memorial Day service at Williams Park, but it wasn’t as well attended as usual.

Given everything this town has been through in the past two weeks, local veterans say it was still important to remember what the day is really all about.

“We usually have a parade, and all the schools are marching, and the fire trucks are all out, and the place is wall to wall people,” explained Brookfield resident Barbara Menendez.

This Memorial Day there was just a quiet ceremony to honor the fallen, attended by about 50 people.

“It feels lonely. Instead of hearing marching bands you’re hearing chainsaws,” Menendez said.

“None of my friends are even having barbeques today. Everybody is busy in clean-up either of their house or someone else’s house,” she added.

Not even the utility crews took a holiday. Bucket trucks still line the sky where poles were snapped by the storm.

“It doesn’t feel like celebrating at all. In fact, it seems like we’ve been through a battle here. So, no celebration this weekend,” Fred Herpel said.

Blue tarp covers a hole in Herpel's home where one of two dozen trees toppled over in the storm.

“It hit about six feet away from me and the wind was blowing sideways,” he said.

The town’s parade was canceled in part because there weren’t enough bodies to run it.

“Our Emergency staff has been working for two weeks. They’re exhausted,” said First Selectman Steve Dunn.

Still, the local VFW stepped in to make sure those who put down their lives for their country weren’t forgotten.

“The meaning becomes a little bit sharper, focused because of the loss, we think about the loss of everything at this point,” said Bob Brown, the Brookfield VFW’s vice-commander.

Firefighter and veteran Lou Menendez has been on the front lines the last two weeks but says what he's thinking about the most this Memorial Day isn't the storm.

“Seeing what happened to people and the loss here, which is small compared to the loss of somebody who died in service to their country,” Lou Menendez said.

Dunn told NBC Connecticut they will make up the parade on either the Fourth of July or Labor Day. In the meantime, they’re tallying up the losses to apply for FEMA funds. So far, the town is up to $4.5 million in storm damage.

A small neighborhood in Hamden known as Honor Hill has streets that act as memorials every day of the year for some of the town’s sons who were killed in Vietnam.

The streets were named for fallen soldiers starting in the early 1980s, and then a pair of residents who live in the neighborhood found it fitting to install another memorial in the men’s honor.

“We thought it was a wonderful opportunity and this is a wonderful opportunity to let people know, who these streets are named for and to maybe inspire other neighborhoods in Hamden to name streets for the fallen in other wars,” Dave Johnson said.

The new monument, which sits at the base of a flagpole with an American flag atop, has the names of the Honor Hill soldiers inscribed on it.

Maj. Pierce Irving Roberston died in a helicopter crash in October 1966. Capt. Oscar Biehl Jr was killed by small arms fire in May 1966. Spc. 4th Class Ralph Paul Costanzo was fatally wounded in October 1967. Cpl. Donald Porter Ferguson was killed in hostile action in January 1968, and Cpl. Robert Berton Read was killed by small arms fire in February 1969.

Extended family of several of the soldiers were in attendance Monday for the unveiling.

Derek Dunn was two years old when his uncle Pierce Robertson was killed in Vietnam. He said he has no memories of him. He accompanied his mother Bernadette, Pierce’s sister, to the event on Costanzo Court.

“Sometime in the near future there isn’t going to be anyone left who remembers him or remembers his story, or to tell his story,” Dunn said. so to think that the residents of Honor Hill, took it up themselves to honor him and his other four comrades that gave the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam, just really means the world to us.”

Dick Ferguson made the trip to Hamden on short-notice. Dave Johnson, one of the organizers of the ceremony, got in touch with Ferguson through his elementary school, and eventually made contact just weeks before the event.

Ferguson said his brother’s name is on monuments at Yale in the New Haven harbor, but said the one with the names of the other Hamden fallen soldiers will mean the most to him.

He said he plans to take his family to see the marker in the near future.

“I have two other kids, they don’t live at home right now. Probably not on Memorial Day but the first opportunity, I’ll bring them up here,” Ferguson said.

Emergency crews are searching for a missing teen in Old Saybrook after a boater found an overturned kayak Monday afternoon.

United States Coast Guard officials said they are searching 18-year-old William Zadrozny after the capsized kayak was found at the mouth of the Connecticut River between the two break walls around 4:55 p.m.

Keith Williams, of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's environmental conservation police, said they found Zadrozny's car in the parking lot of North Cove and believe he left from there at some point early Monday afternoon.

Officials said they are in contact with his family. Zadrozny is believed to have been wearing work boots, a gray and yellow jacket and jeans.

A personal flotation device and fishing gear were found attached to the kayak, Williams said.

Old Saybrook police said 10 mutual aid fire agencies are searching a 10-nautical mile radius for Zadrozny. The search will continue until the entire area is covered. The Coast Guard is searching with boats and planes.

“We are searching in the Connecticut River and we are also searching outside the mouth of the Connecticut River, both to the east and the west. We’re searching with boats, with a helicopter, and with a plane,” Andrew Ely, of the Coast Guard, said.

“We are covering the area thoroughly, looking all along the shoreline, looking at any buoys or any other things that float that maybe he could be hanging onto,” he added.

While the air temperatures have been warm, water temperatures are in the mid-50s, officials said.

This incident is not related to the search for two missing boaters in Groton, fire officials confirmed.

A person took teenagers hostage at a high school in the Belgian city of Liege Tuesday after fatally shooting two police officers and a civilian, NBC News reported.

The suspect was "neutralized," according to the provincial governor, while the city's Twitter account confirmed the three deaths and reported that local school children "are safe and sound."

The Liege police chief said the man had stabbed two female officers, ages 45 and 53, then shot them with their own handguns and went on to wound four other officers, The Associated Press reported.

Belgian police officers were the target of knife attacks in August and October 2016.

And dozens of people were killed in March of that year in an attack on the Brussels airport and subway system.

The FBI on Monday went public with a warning, urging people to reboot the internet routers in their homes because Russian hackers have targeted hundreds of thousands of the devices.

The FBI said malware capable of shutting down web traffic and collecting private information can come through internet routers. But it may only take a minute to make sure a router is safe by unplugging the device and waiting at least 30 seconds before plugging it back in. That simple action will reboot the system and disrupt any malware being sent to the router, according to internet security experts.

Experts from Silicon Valley say nearly half a million routers are already under attack. Hackers are using the devices as a way to get into networks and see data. And instead of trying to get into businesses, the hackers are targeting private homes.

The source of the malware program, known as VPNFilter, was traced to the Sofacy Group, also known as A.P.T. 28, Fancy Bear and Pawn Storm, according to a report from Forbes.

It is reportedly the same group that hacked the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2016 presidential election, the Forbes report said.

Uber unveiled a new security feature Tuesday that allows you to connect directly with a police dispatcher at the tap of a button.

The "call 911" feature in Uber's app also displays your location information, the make and model of the driver's vehicle, and its license plate number, NBC's "Today" show reported.

An Uber pilot program in six cities will go further. The ride-hailing company's "call 911" button will automatically send information about the car's location and driver directly to police.

Cities kicking off the pilot program are: Denver, Charleston, South Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; Naples, Florida; and Tri-Cities, Tennessee.

Next time you use that jar of spice, take a closer look, because it's possible you might find a bug lurking around. 

"It's definitely more common than we think. The FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) has done a study that estimates about 12 percent of imported spices are actually contaminated with insect parts," said Jackie London, Good Housekeeping magazine's nutrition director.

In an FDA document from March, there's a handbook of the "defect levels" allowed in certain foods "that present no health hazards for humans."

For example, with ground pepper, the FDA allows an average of 475 or more insect fragments per 50 grams.

"Definitely more likely to see bugs in any type of spicy spices so things like paprika, chili pepper, cayenne pepper, chili flakes, turmeric," London said.

To reduce the risk of finding a creepy crawler, she gave us this tip:

"When you get home, you can put these into the freezer, which can kill off the bugs," London said. "It should definitely be in there for three days plus."

So, it may be time for all of us to make a little more room in the freezer.

The FDA says it set these "defect action levels" for certain foods because they say it's economically impractical to process products totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring defects. But they point out products harmful to consumers are subject to regulatory action whether or not they exceed these action levels.

A 17-year-old scooter rider was seriously injured when he collided with an SUV on Pine Street in Bristol Monday.

Bristol police said the 17-year-old was riding a scooter on Lois Street just after 7:20 p.m. The teen exited onto Pine Street and collided with a Nissan Rogue traveling east on Pine Street, police said.

The teen suffered serious injuries and was taken to St. Francis Hospital for treatment. He was listed in stable condition as of Monday night.

No one in the Nissan was hurt.

The Serious Traffic Accident Reconstruction Team is investigating. Anyone with information should contact Officer Jones at 860-584-3036.

Sixty-four percent of Americans believe racism is still a major problem in our society while 30 percent said racism exists today but isn't a major problem, according to a new NBC NewsSurveyMonkey poll.

The poll coincides with the airing on Tuesday night of an MSNBC town hall called "Everyday Racism in America" on racial bias in the country.

It was held in Philadelphia, where the arrest of two black men in a Starbucks last month stirred outrage across the country. On Tuesday, 8,000 of the coffee shop's stores closed for "racial bias training."

Recent weeks have seen similar high-profile incidents involving apparent racial profiling of people doing innocuous things, like barbecuing in a park, and 45 percent of people who responded to the poll said race relations in the United States are getting worse.

A cat died during a fire at a home in Meriden early Tuesday morning. 

Meriden Fire Chief Kenneth Morgan said the fire started around 4:30 a.m. in the back of 361 Columbus Ave., a multi-family home that was converted into a one-family home. 

Seven people live in the home and crews initially thought someone might have been trapped inside because only six people got out, but fire officials later determined the other member of the family wasn’t home when the fire started. 

No people were injured, but one of the family’s cats died from smoke inhalation, Morgan said. 

It took around half an hour for firefighters to put out the fire.

Four firefighters are being treated for smoke inhalation after a fire at a home in Stratford early Tuesday morning. 

Firefighters responded to 361 Canaan Road after a call came in around midnight and fire officials said the fire started in the back of the three-story home. 

Six people from three families were inside when the fire started and they were all able to get out. No one was injured and a cat was saved, fire officials said. 

Four firefighters were taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and are expected to be OK. 

Residents told firefighters that they were using a charcoal grill last night. 

Most of the damage to the house is on the second and third floors. 

The American Red Cross is working to assist the displaced families with getting shelter. 

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani did not exactly get a warm welcome when he decided to celebrate his 74th birthday at Yankee Stadium on Monday.

The crowd could be heard on a video posted to social media booing the former mayor when an announcer wished Giuliani a happy birthday during the Yankees' 5-1 loss to the Houston Astros.

"The New York Yankees wish a very happy birthday to Mayor Giuliani," the announcer said over the loudspeaker.

That proclamation was immediately met with hundreds of jeers for the avid Yankees fan who was once dubbed "America's Mayor," a moniker Giuliani earned for his response to the 9/11 attacks.

In April, Giuliani joined the team of lawyers working for President Donald Trump amid the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He has garnered headlines for his sharp attacks on the Justice Department and drawn the president's ire for a series of scattershot interviews. 

Giuliani hasn't commented on the boos. 

Officially, the government of Puerto Rico has blamed Hurricane Maria for 64 deaths, but a new study out Tuesday found that the powerful storm was responsible for more than 4,500 deaths.

That's more than 70 times deadlier than the official estimate, and the true figure could be even higher, according to the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The Puerto Rican government welcomed the study, which calculated that the number of excess deaths on the island related to the storm was 4,645. That would make Hurricane Maria the deadliest hurricane in recent U.S. history, eclipsing Hurricane Katrina and its official death toll of 1,833.

"The mortality rate remained high through the end of December 2017, and one third of the deaths were attributed to delayed or interrupted health care," wrote the study's authors, from Harvard, Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Hurricane Maria slammed the U.S. territory in September as a Category 4 storm, knocking out power and water for most of the island. Both were only gradually restored and the systems remain vulnerable to new storms as this year's hurricane season begins — only 95 percent of power was in service as of Tuesday.

The official death toll has been subjected to scrutiny before, and in February Gov. Ricardo Rosselló commissioned George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health to study the number of deaths related to Hurricane Maria in the interest of improving the government's ability to account for deaths in the future.

Rosselló reiterated that desire Tuesday after he was asked about the new study.

"We want the real number to come out. We had a protocol that was subpar, we recognize that," Rosselló said at a news conference.

A representative of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration noted in a statement that the government "always expected the number to be higher than what was previously reported."

The Harvard-led study relied on a survey of about 3,300 households that was compared against official vital statistics to determine how many excess deaths took place after the hurricane through the end of 2017. The estimate is likely to be conservative, the authors noted.

They said that for a death to be confirmed as related to a disaster, the person's body must be confirmed in-person either at the Institute of Forensic Sciences in San Juan or by a medical examiner who travels to the municipality.

The severe damage caused by the hurricane made both travel and communications on Puerto Rico difficult  and medical resources were heavily taxed across the island for weeks.

Allergan recalled Tuesday one lot of Taytulla birth control pills given out by doctors as samples because of a possible packaging error that may lead to the risk of an unintended pregnancy. 

The company issued the voluntary recall after a physician reported that four placebo capsules were placed out of order in a sample pack of the oral contraceptive. The packs consist of 24 "active" pink softgel capsules and four maroon placebo softgel capsules. 

In the affected sample, the first four days of therapy had non-hormonal placebo capsules instead of active capsules. 

"The reversing of the order may not be apparent to either new users or previous users of the product, increasing the likelihood of taking the capsules out of order," the recall notice on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website said. "If patients have concerns regarding the possibility of an unintended pregnancy they should consult their physician." 

Lot No. 5620706 was distributed to healthcare providers nationwide and contained nearly 170,000 sample packs, according to The Wall Street Journal. The pill packs have a May 2019 expiration date. 

Allegan said it was notifying customers by letter of the potential issue. Customers with the recalled pills should contact their physician to return the pills. 

Consumers can also contact Allergan at (800) 678-1605 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.

The Dow Jones industrial average shed 450 points, or 1.6 percent, by midday as political turmoil in Italy and difficult trade talks with China caused the market to wobble, CNBC reported.

Goldman Sachs, Boeing and J.P. Morgan Chase led the Dow's losses. The S&P 500 dropped 1.8 percent and the Nasdaq composite fell nearly 1 percent.

The euro dropped below $1.16, its lowest level against the dollar this year, as Italian debt rates rose.

The country has been trying to establish a stable government as anti-establishment forces abandoned an effort to create a ruling coalition over the weekend.

Starbucks is closing this afternoon for anti-bias training and Connecticut residents are responding to the company's plan.

The 203 sells Connecticut-themed merchandise and they are expanding their offerings.

Some Greenwich firefighters made an adorable rescue Tuesday.

Members of Engine 3 rescued seven ducklings from a storm drain on Ritch Avenue and the babies have been reunited with their momma.

The longer version of the video shows the mother ducking nearby as firefighters rescue the babies. Then, the duck family waddles away together.  

Interstate 691 East was closed in Meriden for around six and a half hours after a wrong-way crash and state police said there is a fatality.

The crash happened at 3:05 a.m. and involved at least one tractor-trailer and a car, according to Connecticut State Police. They said extrication was required. The highway reopened just after 9:30 a.m.

Traffic is backed up to exit 4. Vehicles have to get off the highway at exit 5 and can get back on at exit 7.

No additional information is available.

A dog stranded on a roof in Maine was pawsitively grateful to the firefighter who rescued him, showing his appreciation by giving the first responder thank you kisses.

Wells police said the dog managed to get on the roof of the home over the weekend through an open window on the second floor. Authorities received several calls reporting the stranded dog and one worried onlooker stood guard near the house until first responders arrived.

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When firefighters and police arrived, Capt. Jeff Nawfel of the Wells Fire Department climbed a ladder to reach the dog and coaxed the pooch back into the home, but not before the canine thanked him with a few wet kisses.

Officer Steve McDonald captured the sweet moment in a now-viral photo.

"Thank you kisses to Captain Nawfel! It's pawsatively love! Is there anything more stunning than an animal expressing gratitude?!" Wells police wrote on Facebook.

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