Nearly one year after deadly floods ravaged the Naugatuck Valley, state leaders returned with a message on Friday.

They insisted that Connecticut is better prepared now, but residents need to have a disaster plan – before it’s too late.

The floods changed many communities forever.

At Creative Starts Learning Center in Oxford, instead of recess, children now stream into the parking lot for evacuation drills. The day care center was inundated with chest-high water last August.

“The line [on the wall] is just to remind everyone how much water we had in the building,” said owner Marta Saklawska. “It was 5 feet.”

It took five months for Creative Starts to reopen, and Saklawska is still rebuilding the outdoor playground.

In Oxford alone, seven bridges were destroyed by, ironically, the Little River. Across the region, flooding led to $300 million in losses, damaging around 2,000 homes. Three people died in the disaster.

Gov. Ned Lamont said that Connecticut learned a lot of lessons and is already making changes.

“Making our bridges more resilient,” he said. “See what we’re doing in terms of berms to make sure that Little Rivers, when they flood, create a lot less damage.”

Emergency managers said coordination has improved with the federal and local governments, the Connecticut Department of Transportation and utilities. Five regional coordinators are on call 24 hours a day. The new state budget also spends $5 million on updated flood maps, and a new law requires insurance carriers to offer homeowners flood insurance.

Those were all suggestions from a Connecticut Conference of Municipalities report that called the floods “a wake-up call.”

But new challenges lay ahead, too.

The Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection has its own meteorologists to get ahead of storms, but the Trump administration is slashing hundreds of positions at the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which tracks hurricanes.

“They use the information that we get from our National Weather Service and NOAA partners. The U.S. Geological Survey, which provides information on gauges and things like that,” said DESPP's deputy commissioner Brenda Bergeron.

Responding after a major storm could be tougher, too. Trump has suggested eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which experienced delays responding to last week’s deadly flooding in Texas.

“Some of these disasters are in the hundreds of millions of dollars or beyond,” Lamont said. “And there, you really do need the federal government as a backstop.”

If FEMA cuts back disaster relief, Lamont said that Connecticut may have to dip into its $4 billion Rainy Day Fund. But the state may also need those reserves to cover deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP food benefits.

The best line of defense is a good offense, officials said.

"Have a conversation,” said Connecticut Emergency Management Director William Turner. “It doesn’t need to be a 300-page plan. Just talk it through with your family.”

Every family should have an evacuation plan, including a “go kit” with a change of clothes, non-perishable food, clean water and a battery-powered weather radio.

“Be prepared,” said DESPP commissioner Ronnell Higgins. “You will hear that early; you will hear that often.”

Higgins urged people to sign up for the CT Alert system on their phone. It gives you more advanced warning than standard emergency alerts, which don’t go out until a life-threatening situation is imminent.

Right now, only 7% of residents are signed up for CT Alert.

“In a world where everyone standing here is carrying a communications device, there's no excuse for an inability to get the information that is life-saving out,” said Rep. Jim Himes.

At Creative Starts, they’re signed up – and ready for the next disaster.

“If it happens, we know what to do and how fast to get out,” Saklawska said. “But praying this never happens – at least not for another 100 years.”

SIGN UP for CT Alert HERE.