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Mysterious hum rattles American city as residents report sleepless nights and rising fear
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A persistent, low-frequency hum has invaded the city of West Haven, Connecticut, according to many residents, leaving some shaken by an occurrence they’re calling everything from mysterious to excruciating.
For some time, residents of this city on the coast of Long Island Sound have believed the source of the hum to be local industry, and they’re demanding a resolution. After circulating a petition and obtaining over 140 signatures, a group convinced the city council to spend $16,000 to hire a third-party acoustic firm.
“For years, our community has been plagued by a constant or intermittent humming noise and low-frequency vibrations affecting multiple areas of town,” the petition notes. “This disturbing phenomenon occurs at all hours, disrupting our ability to sleep, concentrate and enjoy life to its fullest.
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“Many residents have reported increased levels of stress, anxiety and physical discomfort due to this incessant noise and vibration.”
There have been “numerous complaints” made about it over time, it adds, yet “the source of this noise remains unresolved. … We are deeply concerned about the long-term health consequences this persistent noise pollution imposes on us.”
A mysterious hum has been disrupting the lives of many residents (not pictured) of West Haven, Conn., creating anxiety. (iStock)
Mental health issues linked to low-frequency hums are common, experts say. But not all residents hear the noise.
John Carrano, West Haven’s commissioner of human resources, told Fox News Digital the sound is at its highest level near his home, yet his own children do not hear the hum.
“My house is the loudest of all the different locations in the area,” he said. “I would test in the morning and test in the evening. If I saw an elevated decibel reading, I would go up to the industrial zone and test the property line.”
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In a city of almost 56,000 citizens, the difference of opinion and ideas about the issue is apparently common.
“This is a quality-of-life issue, no doubt,” said Mayor Dorinda Borer, according to NBC Connecticut. “We don’t want people to be impacted. We don’t want [people’s] health to be impacted.”
West Haven, Connecticut, is on the coast of Long Island Sound. The city has almost 56,000 residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. (Google Maps)
The acoustic firm hired for the task will use 10 microphones to continuously listen for the hum over the course of seven days.
Government officials need to choose a week with low wind and no precipitation, Carrano said.
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“People feel the hum differently,” he continued. “Some don’t even hear it. Others hear it, and they’re not bothered by it. Then there’s another group that finds it very disturbing when they hear it.”
“It’s gotten to the point where it just gets in your chest.”
One person said she felt like she was going “cuckoo” when she heard the sound and her family didn’t, the New Haven Register reported.
“I’ve been hearing this noise for over four years or whatever, and I thought it was just me going a little cuckoo,” resident Rosemary Brooks said at a recent council meeting. “But it’s gotten to the point where it just gets in your chest.”
Some West Haven residents (not pictured) have said a mysterious hum is preventing them from sleeping at night. (iStock)
Bennett Brooks, president of Brooks Acoustics Corporation, a company based in Connecticut and Florida, told Fox News Digital, “It’s a problem that should be rectified. Lower frequencies are much harder to block than the higher frequency of sound.
“It can be very annoying. It’s as if it shakes the dishes and windows in your kitchen.”
Connecticut has many noise ordinances, but there are few “applicable government regulations that address low-frequency noise,” he said.
The state of Connecticut enforces numerous noise rules, but there are limited regulations that specifically cover low-frequency noise. (iStock)
Similar hums have been reported around the world, according to numerous sources, including in Taos, New Mexico; Auckland, New Zealand; and Windsor, Ontario.
The hums are often, but not always, traced to factories or power plants.
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A high-pressure gas pipeline or mechanical device can sometimes be to blame, reports suggest. But some, like the one in Taos, have puzzled researchers for decades.
The mayor of West Haven is reluctant to make a quick decision about what’s going on in Connecticut.
“My pets tend to pace and stare.”
“We have to cross our T’s and dot our I’s before we go to [any specific] company and cite them,” the mayor told the Register.
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Kimberly Nunes, who lives in the affected neighborhood and authored the petition, said the sound has taken a toll on everyone in her household, FOX 61 reported.
“It’s affecting my mental health, my sleep, my well-being,” Nunes said. “As well as my children’s. I’ve noticed that my pets tend to pace and stare.”
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State Treasurer Erick Russell achieved a 14% increase last year investing Connecticut’s pension fund assets, gaining roughly $8.3 billion for retirement programs for state employees, teachers and other municipal workers.
The state, which oversees nearly $69 billion in pension assets, aims for an average annual return on pension investments of 6.9%.
Expectations for bigger gains grew throughout the past year as key stock market indices surged. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges, grew by more than 13% in 2025. And the S&P 500, which follows 500 traded companies, topped 16%.
Among peer states and other entities that manage public pension funds holding more than $10 billion in assets, Connecticut’s 2025 performance ranks in the top 17%, Russell said.
But the treasurer, who also announced this week he will seek a second term, said the latest big earnings stem from more than the big gains Wall Street enjoyed in 2025.
“Markets certainly have been strong, but a lot of this is about our overall asset allocation,” said Russell, who updated the Investment Advisory Council Tuesday on the state’s portfolio. “The progress we’ve been making … is a good sign that we’re set up for future success.”
Russell also reported investment gains of 10.3% for the 2024 calendar year and 12.8% for 2023.
State officials particularly have focused on improving investment returns since a May 2023 report from Yale University researchers found Connecticut’s results badly lagged the nation’s over the prior decade.
That only compounded an even larger pension problem that state officials began to address in the early 2010s. According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Connecticut governors and legislatures failed to save adequate for pension benefits for more than seven decades prior to 2011. This deprived the state treasurer of huge assets that otherwise could have been invested to generate billions of dollars in revenue over those seven decades.
The treasurer’s office under Russell has put more funds into private and domestic markets and curbed reliance on investment managers who receive large fees for their work.
Gov. Ned Lamont and the General Assembly also have greatly assisted efforts to bolster the fiscal health of pension programs in recent years. Since 2020, they have used $10 billion from budget surpluses to make supplemental payments into pensions for state employees and municipal teachers. That’s in addition to annual required payments that currently approach $3.3 billion in the General Fund.
“These returns highlight the impressive work of Treasurer Russell and his team in increasing investment returns,” Lamont’s budget spokesman, Chris Collibee, said Tuesday. “Gov. Lamont’s focus has been on building a sustainable Connecticut for the future. Every dollar in additional investment revenue is funds the state can use to cut taxes and provide more resources for essential programs like education, child care, housing, and social services safety nets.”
Russell, a New Haven Democrat, said he has tried to make the office both “disciplined and forward-looking.”
“Over the last several years, we haven’t just changed how the office works, we’ve changed who it works for. We’re ushering in a new era of fiscal responsibility, making significant payments on long-term debt that has allowed us to invest in the residents of Connecticut and begin to lift up communities across our state.”
Russell also brokered a key compromise in 2023 between Lamont and the legislature that salvaged the Baby Bonds program, an initiative that invests long-term funds in Connecticut’s poorest children when they’re born to help finance educational and business opportunities later in life.
Keith M. Phaneuf is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org). Copyright 2026 © The Connecticut Mirror.
A person was hit by a vehicle Tuesday morning in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Police responded just after 10 a.m. to the crash at the intersection of Elm Street and Carter Street.
Officers began treating the pedestrian, who was then taken to an area hospital with unspecified injuries.
The driver stayed at the scene, the Waltham Police Department said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
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