Families living on the Connecticut shoreline know all too well the devastation that can be caused by storms like Hurricane Florence.

Communities along the coast felt the back-to-back punches from Irene in 2011 and Sandy in 2012.

“Milford on the beach is even more beautiful,” said Victoria Mellah, who moved into a beach home the same year Sandy damaged thousands of homes on the shoreline. “It took quite a toll on this community and rehab afterwards took a long time.”

Mellah said she made sure to get out before the storm.

“Everyone in the community was warned ahead of time,” she told NBC Connecticut.

She evacuated before she said there was four feet of flooding in her Cooper Avenue home.

“Bed had floated against the door,” Mellah said, “everything was just black with muck.”

A year earlier Hurricane Irene hit the Connecticut coast in August 2011.

“Some people decided to ride out the first storm in general because they’ve lived along the shoreline their whole lives, never seen things come in so devastating,” Milford Fire Battalion Chief Anthony Fabrizi said. “Unfortunately some people managed to get trapped and we needed to rescue them.”

When Sandy arrived in late October 2012, “a lot of residents realized I’m not gonna do that again,” Fabrizi said.

Obeying evacuation orders can be a matter of life or death for residents and first responders, Fabrizi said.

“We will risk a lot to save a lot,” Fabrizi said, “however, there does become a cutoff point where putting our personnel in almost certain danger of losing their lives becomes unacceptable.”

With Hurricane Florence approaching the Carolinas, Mellah has a message for people living in the project path of the powerful storm.

“Don’t be a hero,” she said. “It’s brick and mortar. Don’t have someone else risk their life as first responders to come get you because you wanted to save brick and mortar, take what you can and evacuate is my biggest advice.”

The storm surge in Milford during Irene and Sandy was between four and eight feet, Fabrizi said. NBC Connecticut's meteorologists are forecasting the storm surge down south during Hurricane Florence could be up to 20 feet.

As the hurricane gets closer to making landfall, Fabrizi said he is thinking about a former college and his family.

“We have a retired firefighter from this department who lives right in the Charleston area as a matter of fact,” he said, “concerned for their wellbeing.”

A former coach at the Norwich Free Academy is accused of having sexual relationships with two students.

Police arrested 25-year-old Anthony Facchini Wednesday.

Facchini is accused of having sexual relationships with two Norwich Free Academy students starting in 2017 while he worked as an athletic coach.

The investigation began in June 2018 the Department of Children and Families received a report that Facchini was having an inappropriate relationship with a student.

Facchini was charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault. Bond was set at $75,000 and he is due in court on Sept. 20.

NBC Connecticut has reached out to Norwich Free Academy for comment.

This is a developing story.

Tenants living at an apartment building in Hartford are questioning living conditions.

Barbara Ashvy lives inside a first-floor apartment at 183 Wethersfield Ave. with her husband and three children. She says her bathroom is full of mold and fungus.

“I had trees going out of the walls. I had to stop my kids from going in the bathroom.”

A social media post by a family friend with pictures showing what the family says are the current condition of the apartment caught the attention of Hartford city officials.

“I never called the city. I went straight to Michelle. I called the super myself and said look at my bathroom!” Ashvy told NBC Connecticut.

Barbara said Michelle, the building super and property manager, has not been responsive to her concerns. When asked about it, Michelle had no comment.

“I told them multiple times about the ceiling leaking, they put the complaint in. Whatever going on in the apartment above me is causing my ceiling to grow trees and mushrooms and fungus,” Ashvy said.

The social media post prompted a handful of Hartford city officials to respond Wednesday.

Darlene Robertson-Childs, a Hartford housing code enforcement supervisor, spoke with Ashvy at the scene.

“We require all rental units to have a certificate of occupancy prior to renting. She’s been here six months, there’s no way we woulda’ approved this apartment because the floors are not impervious to water, there’s problems with the walls and a few violations I can see just looking at it,” Robertson-Childs told NBC Connecticut.

City records show this isn’t the first time the city has had issues with the building. Inspectors have investigated resident complaints going back to 2012.

We found mice in another unit in May. Robertson-Childs said the rodent issue was addressed at the time.

Ashvy said her family can’t live like this and need the problems fixed.

“She never contacted our department so we knew nothing about conditions in her unit, so we’re hearing about it for first time on social media, and we’re responding,” Robertson-Childs said. “She did exactly what she’s supposed to do, but because of their neglect, she’s in situation she’s in.”

Robertson-Childs added that the city was not aware of the issues, and if it had been reported, the building’s owner would have been cited.

NBC Connecticut spoke with one of the two owners of the building by phone, who said he wasn’t aware of any of this and that he’ll speak to his building super to get her version of events and address the problem.

A past building owner said mold in the same apartment years ago was brought on by the lack of fans in the bathroom.

City officials said the property manager will be given time to fix the issues.

Emergency crews responded after a letter containing a powdery substance was delivered to a local synagogue Wednesday and police believe it may be connected to a series of white powder scares in other Connecticut cities last week.

Middletown police and fire were called to the Adath Israel Synagogue on Broad Street for a letter with some kind of powder substance. More details were not immediately released.

The FBI has taken over the investigation.

The FBI, USPS, US Marshals Service, Connecticut State Police and local departments are investigating multiple incidents of letters containing white powder delivered to both government and non-government organizations last week. At least four of those incidents were in Hartford.

Last week the US Attorney’s Office confirmed that investigators seized unmailed letters and stopped some letters from reaching the recipients, but also warned that letters were continuing to arrive at new locations.

Connecticut State Police said that no one who had contact with any of the white powder suffered any illness or injury. Anyone who receives a suspicious package is encouraged to call 911.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said 51-year-old Gary Gravelle, of New Haven, is being questioned in connection with these incidents. Gravelle was arrested on a supervised release violation unrelated to this case and is in custody. Officials said no charges have been filed in connection with the white powder incidents.

Gravelle is known to federal authorities. In 2013, he was sentenced in Bridgeport federal court to 70 months in prison for mailing threatening letters and he was released from federal prison in November 2015.

As residents of the southeast evacuate their homes to get away from areas Hurricane Florence, officials in Connecticut are urging residents to prepare in the event that a major storm could strike here at some point. 

Senate Democrats and first responders will hold a news conference at the New Haven Emergency Operations Center. 

The news conference will begin at 10 a.m. at the New Haven Emergency Operations Center.

The state Insurance Department has made decisions on the health insurance rate filings for the 2019 coverage year and said the average increase for individual plans is 2.72 percent, down from average request of about 12 percent.

A statement from Insurance Department says the average increase for small group plans is 3.14 percent, down from the requested average of just over 10 percent.

“Medical trend - the cost of medical services and the demand for those services - continues to be the main cost driver and we need to work with all stakeholders to reduce the cost of health care, which drives increases in health insurance premiums,” Commissioner Katharine L. Wade said in a statement. “For the first time there will be more choice of innovative networks and plan cost sharing options for consumers on the exchange. The Department has worked closely with the Access Health CT Board and the exchange carriers to ensure a variety of meaningful options. Providing greater choice to consumers is important so they can choose a plan that best meet their individual and family needs.”

The commissioner said carriers also accounted for the cost of new state mandates and added pregnancy as a qualifying event to enroll in health insurance in the individual market. 

Factors contributing to the final rate decisions included a limited impact from lack of enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. They said the department determined there would be a marginal impact from the federal government’s new regulations for short-term, limited-duration health plans and association health plans.

West Hartford police are investigating a burglary at Wise Old Dog liquor store on South Quaker Lane and said the burglary this morning is similar to several other recent burglaries at the same shop. 

Police responded to the liquor at 612 South Quaker Lane at 5:13 a.m. after a glass break alarm went off and they found the glass of the front door was smashed. 

Store cameras showed two people enter the store and take items, according to police, who said they believe cigarettes and alcohol were taken. 

The store has been burglarized several times recently in the same manner and police said they have not made any arrests or identified any suspects.

Bob Stefanowski spent the hour long debate at the Garde Arts Center in New London doing his best to paint Democrat Ned Lamont as a surrogate of Connecticut’s current unpopular governor.

The GOP nominee for governor mentioned the outgoing governor three minutes in to the first debate between the two major party candidates.

“In Ned Lamont, it’s actually going to be worse,” Stefanowski said. “He’s going to try to deny it tonight but he’s been on the radio saying he’s going to raise taxes and out up tolls. Ladies and gentlemen, enough is enough.”

On nearly every question posed by the panelists from the The Day of New London and WTNH, Stefanowski pivoted to either an attack on Dan Malloy, or a link between Malloy and Lamont.

He said, “We need to do exactly the opposite of what Dan Malloy has been doing for the next eight years and Ned Lamont will just continue it.”

Lamont, who is running for statewide office for the third time, pointed out that he attempted to defeat Malloy in the 2010 Democratic Primary. Many of Lamont’s attacks on Stefanowski focused on the former corporate executive’s bold proposal to eliminate the state’s income tax.

Lamont quoted newspaper editorials that described Stefanowski’s plan as, “fantasy,” and “pie in the sky.”

From a practical standpoint, Stefanowski’s proposal comes at perhaps at the worst possible time for a revenue cut to state government. The income tax brings in more than $9 billion in revenue, roughly half of all of the state’s tax receipts.

Stefanowski said he intends to declare a, “fiscal state of emergency,” if elected governor, and said he thinks he can find five percent of waste, fraud, and abuse in state spending, which could make up for the lost revenue as a result of cutting the income tax either modestly or entirely.

“I can take a billion dollars of cost out of this budget for the state of Connecticut. We can use that to fund a tax cut and that will increase revenues over the long run. The exact opposite of what Dan Malloy’s been doing which is raising the tax rate and the revenues are coming down,” he said.

Lamont countered, saying, “Again, no specifics, except for finding that line item for waste, fraud, and abuse.and that is just the type of political answer that has gotten this state into trouble over the last generation.”

Stefanowski admitted following the debate that he does not have any specific line items targeted for where to trim or eliminate spending.

Some of Lamont’s most potent attacks have to do with Stefanowski’s lack of civic engagement in Connecticut. He lived in London for about a decade, and decided to run for governor in 2017, returning to his home state after a long absence.

“You never got involved. You never even bothered to vote against Dan Malloy. You never even bothered to vote and now you parachute in and you say, ‘I was a big shot at a bunch of companies that both needed enormous bailouts to get through. You got a tax plan that would create a $10 billion hole in our budget.”

Lamont said the attacks against Malloy are ironic because, “Bob wasn’t even there to vote against him.”

The two major party candidates for Connecticut governor are clashing over who is the better person to right the state's economy and reduce massive budget deficits.

Democrat Ned Lamont and Republican Bob Stefanowski met Wednesday night in their first debate of the campaign.

The two candidates - both of them businessmen who have never held elected office - each won their primary elections last month.

Stefanowski, of Madison, said he would lower taxes and emphasize fiscal discipline. Lamont, of Greenwich, said a proposal by Stefanowski to eliminate the state income tax would bankrupt the state.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, is not seeking re-election.

The debate at the Garde Arts Center in New London was sponsored by The Day and WTNH-TV.

More than one million people have been told to get out of the way of Hurricane Florence. Some headed through Connecticut as they escaped the storm.

“This is the first time we’ve ever actually left. My wife kept saying it’s going to be a tough storm,” said Ladwaun Edwards.

Edwards and his family stopped for a quick break at a rest area on Interstate 95 in Milford on Wednesday.

“We were actually highly encouraged to evacuate. That’s why we did,” said Kim Edwards.

They left their home in Jacksonville, North Carolina on Tuesday.

It’s just north of Wilmington and could get pounded by Hurricane Florence.

“They boarded up, taped up windows, pulled stuff from the yard, brought it into the garage,” said Ladwaun Edwards.

At Bradley International Airport on Wednesday, passengers arrived from South Carolina after vacations were cut short.

“We were evacuated. We were told we had to leave,” said James Goddiess of Stonington. “A little nerve-racking especially when they came and boarded up our rental house while we were still there.”

This was the last Spirit flight from Myrtle Beach to Hartford that’s planned for days.

Janet Wellington lives down there.

“The scary thing is not knowing when we can go back,” said Wellington.

And back in Milford, the Edwards are headed to Rhode Island to wait out the storm with family.

“I think we made a good decision,” said Kim Edwards.

The Myrtle Beach airport reports that all commercial flights will end Thursday morning.

Decisions on when flights will resume will be made after the hurricane makes landfall.

The dead fetus found in an airplane bathroom at LaGuardia Airport last month was stillborn, according to officials.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for NYC revealed the autopsy findings Wednesday, saying the fetus, which was discovered Aug. 7 aboard an American Airlines flight, “had been non-viable for at least 24 hours prior to the unanticipated delivery.”

The medical examiner added that there was no criminality and no charges will be filed.

A cleaning crew made the grisly discovery just before 7 a.m. on Aug. 7. The plane arrived in Queens from Charlotte late the night before.

American's flight tracker showed the plane, flight 1942, left Charlotte at 8:56 p.m. and arrived at LaGuardia's Terminal B at 10:44 p.m. Aug. 6. Photos from the scene showed Port Authority officers surrounding the jet on a tarmac Aug. 7 after it apparently was removed from the hangar for further investigation.

Detectives tracked down the mother at a hospital in Brooklyn after flight attendants recalled seeing two young women sitting near the back of the plane go into the bathroom after it landed, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told News 4 New York. 

The mother, whose name has not been released, told detectives she had been bleeding for a day or two while they were on a trip in Jamaica. Their flight stopped in Charlotte, North Carolina, before heading back to New York -- and when the plane did land in Queens, the mother said she was uncomfortable.

She told cops she miscarried the fetus in the plane bathroom, put it in the toilet and covered it with paper towels. She said the baby didn't make a sound and didn't appear to be alive.

The woman said she didn't even know she was pregnant.

The International Space Station captured images of Hurricane Florence as it approached the Carolina coast on Thursday. The Category 2 storm is expected to make landfall late Thursday or early Friday.

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday that he will fully cooperate with an investigation reportedly into whether he misused his government vehicle for traveling home to North Carolina on weekends, NBC News reported.

The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general is running the investigation, according to Politico, which reported that FEMA Administrator Brock Long drew interest when a government vehicle was involved in an incident. 

"If we made mistakes on the way a program was run, then we'll work with the (inspector general) to get those corrected," Long said. "You know doing something unethical is not part of my DNA."

Misuse of taxpayer funds on travel has dogged President Donald Trump's administration, leading to some resignations.

An East Hartford man has been missing for more than a month and police are asking anyone with information on where he is to contact them. 

Forty-one-year-old Daniel Blake Martin left his Wakefield Circle home on Aug. 9 and his loved ones have not heard from him since, according to police. 

Limited information is available about the disappearance. 

He is 5-feet-11 and weighs 275 pounds. 

Anyone with information should call Detective Ortiz at 860-291-75669 or 860-655-6744.

A woman has serious injuries after being struck by a vehicle in a driveway in Glastonbury, according to police.

The woman, who police said is elderly, was hit in a driveway and transported to a hospital.

Police said her injuries are serious, but did not have any additional information on her condition.

The Trump administration has reached a settlement agreement with lawyers representing migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border that may give the families a second chance to claim asylum in the U.S., NBC News reported.

Many parents had felt pressured to drop asylum cases in order to see their children again or said they were misled into thinking that leaving their children in the U.S. was the only way they could be reunited.

The settlement, which still needs a federal judge's approval, would let some parents and their children redo their asylum interview with a lawyer present.

An ACLU lawyer said the settlement "will now finally give parents a meaningful opportunity to seek asylum with their children." The Justice Department declined to comment while the Department of Homeland Security didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors revealed new details about the arrest of Jabari Bird on Thursday, saying the Boston Celtics guard repeatedly strangled his girlfriend during a fight, causing her to lose consciousness at some points.

Bird, 24, faces several charges, including strangulation, kidnapping, assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and kidnapping, according to police.

New information about what led to the charges came out during his arraignment Thursday in Brighton Municipal Court.

Prosecutors said police met with the victim at the hospital. She identified Bird as her boyfriend and said she got into a fight with him at his Brighton home Friday, at which point he started to strangle her.

She told police Bird strangled her multiple times over a four-hour period, causing her to lose consciousness. When she came to, she said Bird would begin strangling her again. She said she was eventually able to flee in a friend's car.

According to the police report, Bird and his girlfriend were fighting about "Bird having trust issues with her." The report says Bird strangled and kicked her for several hours at his home, preventing her from leaving.

Eventually, the police report says Bird put his girlfriend in the bathroom to stop her from leaving. When she came out, the report says she found Bird had passed out and was "displaying seizure like symptoms." She moved him to a bed and left.

After she left, the police report says Bird texted his girlfriend saying that if she didn't return to his home, he would kill himself.

Bird was taken to a nearby hospital following the alleged incident and his girlfriend was treated at a separate hospital.

Prosecutors asked for $100,000 bail Thursday, but Bird's attorney, Brian Kelly, protested, saying, "Only drug dealers have that kind of cash." The judge ultimately set bail at $50,000.

If Bird is released, he cannot have contact with the victim or go near her Boston-area college campus. He can only leave the state for work purposes. He is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 25.

Bird's agent, Aaron Goodwin, called the cash requirement "ridiculous" as  he walked out of court Thursday. He refused to comment on any of the charges

Bird was originally scheduled to be arraigned on Monday but that was postponed because he was still hospitalized.

The Celtics issued a statement Thursday saying their thoughts are with the victim.

"The Celtics organization deplores domestic violence of any kind, and we are deeply disturbed by the allegations against Jabari Bird," the statement said.

Pursuant to the NBA's domestic violence policy, the Celtics said matters of this kind are handled by the league office. The team said it will have no further comment at this time.

Fans expressed their disappointment with the NBA guard's arrest earlier this week.

"You make it all the way to the NBA and just throw it all away with both hands. I just don't get it," Jim Barry said.

Others agreed.

"That's crazy," Celtics fan Veronica Harry said. "it's a bad message to be sending to your fans."

The Boston Celtics drafted Bird 56th in 2017 in the NBA draft. The two-year deal was reportedly for $3 million, USA Today reported at the time. Bird was reported to become a restricted free agent in 2020.

Bird, 24, is listed as 6 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs about 200 lbs., according to NBA stats. He played for the University of California, Berkeley's California Golden Bears before joining the Celtics..

Hurricane Florence is expected to make landfall overnight, but the Carolina coast is already getting hit with intense winds and heavy rains as the storm approaches.

Wooden Warrior, a roller coaster at Quassy Amusement & Waterpark in Middlebury, has been chosen as one of the top 50 wooden coasters in the world. 

The rankings were announced Saturday during “Amusement Today’s” 2018 Golden Ticket Awards. 

“What makes this accolade special is the fact that Warrior stands out in a crowd of giants,” George Frantzis II, a Quassy owner said in a statement. “Most of the coasters on this list are three to four times the size of our attraction. That says a lot in terms of the experience our ride delivers.”

Wooden Warrior, which opened in 2011, placed 49th this year. See the full list here. 

Quassy Amusement Park & Waterpark is in its 110th year.

Local businesses are coming together in Plainfield to collect supplies for victims of Hurricane Florence.

Organizers are planning to load up a trailer to send to North Carolina.

“Any kind of support for supplies,” Leon Lefevre, an organizer. “Canned goods, water, non-perishables.”

They are collecting supplies with help from local businesses. There are drop off spots at Stanton Equipment, The Music Lady, Plainfield Town Hall, Tarahan Allstate Agency.

“It’s people helping people,” Lefevre said. “That’s all it is. A couple of us got together and it’s just blossomed into this. Every time that there is a catastrophic disaster, we do it.”

They did the same thing for victims of Hurricane Harvey and other recent hurricanes.

“We have cars, just come in they make their rounds you take everything out and then they’re on their way,” said Tara Bjorkland, who works at the Tarahan Allstate Agency.

They begin collecting supplies Thursday, and will send the trailer to the Carolinas as soon as it’s full.

Two high school students in Old Saybrook have been arrested after police investigated a so-called “shooter list.”

A letter the police chief sent to parents, staff and students said they do not believe the students had any plans to harm students or staff, but there was an increased police presence at the school Thursday. 

The letter said a student went to high school administrators Wednesday afternoon to report a safety concern about an alleged list of students, staff and others and school administrators took immediate action, ensuring all students were safe and contacting the school resource officer. 

Police investigated and said two students did create a list of names at the beginning of the school year. Though it was not labeled as such, it was later referred to as a “shooter list,” according to the letter that Police Chief Michael Spera wrote. 

Investigators did not find any evidence and said they do not believe the students had any plans to harm students or staff, but there was extra police presence at the high school Thursday. 

A 17-year-old and a juvenile have been charged with breach of peace in the second degree and they were referred to juvenile court. 

The 17-year-old was also charged with intimidation based on bigotry or bias. 

The letter goes on to say that police reached out to every parent whose child was named on the list.