OT 1955 Connecticut Flood

[CTFIRERETIRED]

I wasn't alive quite yet in 1938, but I am a history buff.
My parents told about it every time there was an approaching hurricane.
The amazing thing is it hit with so little warning and was a category 3 when it made landfall. I'm kinda of glad I missed it. Even though it was late Sept there were still plenty of people enjoying the late summer in small cottages on the shoreline .The tidal surges were 17 ft. The loss of lives was substantial.
I 've been through a bunch of hurricanes and Gloria which left us without power for a week was a category one. That was enough for me.

I too was not alive for 38, but there were stories galore about that storm. One book that tells several about the Great Storm of 1938 is the book "Sudden Sea". One story, in the book, tells about how Katherine Hepburn and their family endured the total destruction of their home in Old Saybrook. Also just before the storm, and on that morning, Kate was playing a round of golf, and sank a hole in one. There are other stories, as well.

http://www.curledup.com/suddenc.htm

 

[David 76]

Concentrated public housing projects and the interstate highway system together killed the inner cities. If one looks at the interstate highway maps from the '50's, when a highway was built into a city it almost always went through the poorest neighborhoods because land value were lower and the residents did not have enough political clout to stop it. Thus, the poorer neighborhoods were either torn down and replaced by massive housing projects (see Chicago, the Bronx, etc.) and/or physically separated from the rest of the city (see I-84 in Hartford).

This is so true. A fine (but poor)neighborhood was wiped out in New Haven for I95 and the Oak Street Connector.. Ironically the Connector never connected anything. Projects followed.