OT 1955 Connecticut Flood

[Echo Hawk]

1955... We had just moved from the North End of Hartford to Bloomfield.
I can remember looking out our kitchen door at a steady sheet of rain during Diane. Mayfair Road filled several inches deep with water, flowed like a small brook from lawn to lawn, and retained a strange warmth from the rain that fell that day.
A few days later, we took the '49 Oldsmobile up toward Litchfield Co to survey the impact. In either Winstead or Torrington the main street had washed out. The manhole covers were undisturbed, but they sat atop their steel casements, like a row of stovepipe hats, sticking up about 5ft above the former street grade along Main St.

We had had a lot of rain the week before the flood and the ground water was saturated.

One thing I remember was the typhoid shots that gave us in grammar school. It all started with a small dam (wooden I believe) that let loose above Winsted and kept cascading down. I was told by a guy that lived in Unionville that the red barn that lies across the Farmington River on Rt 4 and still stands, had a water level just below the peak. If you know that barn, it is hard to believe. As I recall a lot of people just went down the rivers, house and all, in the middle of the night. Especially the Naugatuck.

 

[huskypantz]

Could it happen again in CT? Flood-related destruction to that degree? Or have the levees and concrete channelization made that a thing of the past?

My understanding was that the CT river already had the infrastructure/levies in place hence less damage. As a fallout, 3 dams were constructed by the army corps of engineers to prevent the same level of destruction in the future.

 

[huskypantz]

Really? The poor hill people on Mt. Riga always made the most sense to me and when many of them left the mountain the name spread to Winsted, Torrington etc.

I'm pretty sure the mountain of origin is actually Ski Sundown.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

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.

 

[pnow15]

Was anyone alive for the hurricane of 38?

No, but I have a friend whose brother had one of the great stories.
He was at home with his mother and she fetched him into the house and brought him up to the attic. She had him kneel down on the floor and start to pray. He was only 5 at the time. When he asked her why they were in the attic praying, his mother responded,"We always pray when we are in a house boat." The house was located close to the water near Watch Hill. The tidal surge lifted the house up and carried it literally a half mile away where it settled on to a vacant lot. They survived. Eventually they bought the land and built a foundation under the house.
He died a couple of years ago but my friend is still around.

 

[temery]

I saw a story on a pbs documentary about an old lady recounting her memory of the flood. She said her family had a goldfish bowl in the house. The flood waters were well above the top of the bowl, but when the water receded, the fish was still in the bowl.

Not sure it's true, but it's a good story.

 

[David 76]

My Mom's family had a little farm in East Haven in 1938 were at the same level as the kitchen floor. They brought the livestock into the house. Always hear the story of the pigs floating up until their eyes. That image stayed with me.

 

[ConnEd]

I heard the flood stories many times. My mother and her mom lived in a 3rd floor apartment in a 3-family on Riverside Street in Waterbury. They were woken up by firemen in a boat knocking on doors and evacuating people. They took nothing. After they were safely on higher ground, they watched a neighboring house lift off it's foundation and float into theirs knocking it off of its foundation. It floated or was pushed down the street until it hit another building and came to rest. The house that hit theirs collapsed.

The firemen were also using their new ladder truck to extend the ladder and evacuate people. They saw it get bent around like a horseshoe.

Their building remained intact. When they later were allowed in to retrieve possessions, they saw the water line at the ceiling level of the second floor apartment 20'+ above the river bank. Their possessions were recovered with minimal damage, but the people in the apartments below lost everything.

I've got an old book of Waterbury area flood photos around somewhere. I need to dig it up.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I heard the flood stories many times. My mother and her mom lived in a 3rd floor apartment in a 3-family on Riverside Street in Waterbury. They were woken up by firemen in a boat knocking on doors and evacuating people. They took nothing. After they were safely on higher ground, they watched a neighboring house lift off it's foundation and float into theirs knocking it off of its foundation. It floated or was pushed down the street until it hit another building and came to rest. The house that hit theirs collapsed.

The firemen were also using their new ladder truck to extend the ladder and evacuate people. They saw it get bent around like a horseshoe.

Their building remained intact. When they later were allowed in to retrieve possessions, they saw the water line at the ceiling level of the second floor apartment 20'+ above the river bank. Their possessions were recovered with minimal damage, but the people in the apartments below lost everything.

I've got an old book of Waterbury area flood photos around somewhere. I need to dig it up.

And I complain about Hurricane Irene which flooded out homes in my town in North Jersey up to just the first floor all along the Ramapo River eventually leading to 20 homes being condemned. Happily, I bought my house on the hillside of town, not the riverside. Did not even lose power. I did a lot of volunteer clean-up work after it and it was a mess and the wet summer we already had before Irene hit in August did not help. Of course, I lived through that one unlike '55 or '38. Except for a lot of tree damage, also missed out on whatever Sandy was. Of course, I had neighbors whose summer homes on the shore no longer exist and colleagues who lived in Staten Island and the Rockaways who lose everything, too. Not to mention video clips of the Hudson taking over large chunks of Manhattan south of 14th and I was not able to get to my office in Hoboken for 3 weeks.

 

[Pudge]

http://www.firegeezer.com/2012/04/04/crime-arson-in-connecticut-part-one/

The GREAT Shelton Fire was actually 1975. I know this because my Uncle was GM of the BF Goodrich operation, in 1974, there that sold to the NUTCASE Moeller. It was actually one of the first Leverage Buyouts. The Cash Flow - as this article states - blew out early and the guy needed to do something. The "Weather Underground" clever tact and the full-on Arson makes this a "Gang that couldn't shoot straight" type caper. Unfortunately, what I heard at the time is quite obvious when you read some articles: that fire killed employment in surrounding towns for several years.

 

[John]

check out the last chart - flood records for most of the rivers

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/nerfc/historical/aug1955.htm

 

[DarthGrumpy]

http://www.firegeezer.com/2012/04/04/crime-arson-in-connecticut-part-one/

The GREAT Shelton Fire was actually 1975. I know this because my Uncle was GM of the BF Goodrich operation, in 1974, there that sold to the NUTCASE Moeller. It was actually one of the first Leverage Buyouts. The Cash Flow - as this article states - blew out early and the guy needed to do something. The "Weather Underground" clever tact and the full-on Arson makes this a "Gang that couldn't shoot straight" type caper. Unfortunately, what I heard at the time is quite obvious when you read some articles: that fire killed employment in surrounding towns for several years.

The Valley has a history of bad fires. Latex Foam burned down 3 times - Shelton '75 & '14 plus Ansoina in '01. Shelton Boys & Girls Club in '91. The Hull factory fire in Derby in '81 (I watched that one from the nearby cemetery on the hill) plus the River Restaurant explosion in '85 that several family members had lunch at earlier in the day. There were several others,too.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

I heard the flood stories many times. My mother and her mom lived in a 3rd floor apartment in a 3-family on Riverside Street in Waterbury. They were woken up by firemen in a boat knocking on doors and evacuating people. They took nothing. After they were safely on higher ground, they watched a neighboring house lift off it's foundation and float into theirs knocking it off of its foundation. It floated or was pushed down the street until it hit another building and came to rest. The house that hit theirs collapsed.

The firemen were also using their new ladder truck to extend the ladder and evacuate people. They saw it get bent around like a horseshoe.

Their building remained intact. When they later were allowed in to retrieve possessions, they saw the water line at the ceiling level of the second floor apartment 20'+ above the river bank. Their possessions were recovered with minimal damage, but the people in the apartments below lost everything.

I've got an old book of Waterbury area flood photos around somewhere. I need to dig it up.

There is a vidio on YouTube were the fireman is talking about evacuation.
It was difficult to get some older people to leave. Some they had to carry out and unfortunately they were unable to get to everyone.
My Seymour friend swears there was an older lady who wouldn't leave in one of the houses that was uprooted and destroyed. If that's true the people near the scene had to have a feeling of being powerless as a tragedy played out in front of them.
I was not aware of the amount of water and flooding on the upper Housatontic
Although waters were high the lower Valley was spared by an unusual event
I finally was able to confirm something I thought might just be a legend
In 1955 the Shepaug Dam was built as a hydroelectric project.
The flood gates were wide open as the lake was not schechuled to be flooded for another month.
On a Sunday ride my Dad took us to a spot overlooking the Dam's construction.
The River was just a small trickle running through.
My dad told us there would be a big lake formed once they closed the gates but it would take weeks.
After the rains of that week,
Even with the gates open the great amount of water caused the lake to form overnight ,taking great pressure off Stevenson Dam and everting would could have been an even greater disaster. The lake was then gradually drained and the gates closed and the lake re-flooded as scheduled in late September.

 

[buddy]

Could it happen again in CT? Flood-related destruction to that degree? Or have the levees and concrete channelization made that a thing of the past?

For Ansonia and Derby on the Naugy, they are now safe with the levee. I drove my Chevy there recently and the levees were dry. The Housatonic can still flood from the Stevenson Dam to LI Sound if conditions are right, although it seems like low lying areas of Shelton are most prone.

 

[mauconnfan]

For Ansonia and Derby on the Naugy, they are now safe with the levee. I drove my Chevy there recently and the levees were dry. The Housatonic can still flood from the Stevenson Dam to LI Sound if conditions are right, although it seems like low lying areas of Shelton are most prone.

Last time I was down there I stopped to ask directions from a few good ole' boys who were drinking whiskey and rye.

Then I realized I had GPS and they were too cocked to answer anyway

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I believe a major factor in the '55 flood is that the Naugatuck River was a lot more built-up than the Housatonic and even the Connecticut at that time. Outside of Hartford and Middletown, most towns along the Connecticut are set back from the river with farmland in between, which were flooded instead. South on New Milford, there isn't a population center along the Housatonic until Shelton. Ditto the Farmington below Unionville, which was demolished. On the other hand, the Naugatuck and the Quinbaug are surrounded by mill towns with downtowns and factories right alongside the river. Thus, when they flooded, the water washed away homes and businesses and not farms. Plus, several dam failures along both rivers made things worse.

 

[Ts5034]

The Valley has a history of bad fires. Latex Foam burned down 3 times - Shelton '75 & '14 plus Ansoina in '01. Shelton Boys & Girls Club in '91. The Hull factory fire in Derby in '81 (I watched that one from the nearby cemetery on the hill) plus the River Restaurant explosion in '85 that several family members had lunch at earlier in the day. There were several others,too.

It is crazy when you think about how many fires there have been in The Valley over the years. Specialty Wire in Seymour was another one and im pretty sure that was arson. I didnt think there were that many people on The Boneyard that have ties to The Valley...

 

[DarthGrumpy]

They finally got Internet access about 20 days ago.

The Valley was a very prosperous part of Connecticut from the late 1800's through the 1970's or so. Unfortunately, as heavy industry left the area to seek out lower costs in the Southern US, Mexico and later China, not to mention newer facilities and room for such, the Valley could not and did not want to evolve with the times. I know some folks who steam yearn for the day that heavy industry will return to the area (it won't). I have seen the same mentality with folks with respect to heaving industry in Mohawk Valley in upstate NY, textiles in the Merrimack Valley in MA and NH, and the paper industry in Maine.

Ironically, the Sponge Rubber fire in Shelton in conjunction with the opening of route 8 earlier (started in 19512, completed in 1982) and suburban flight in the 1970's (primarily from Bridgeport and New Haven) provided Shelton with the drive to shift its business focus from heavy industry along the river to suburban office parks Bridgeport Ave along Route 8. Ansonia and Derby along with Naugatuck and Waterbury did not have the land, the highway access (Route 8 in these towns ran through each town's downtown and industrial centers and thus did not open up new land for development), nor the will to evolve. While not perfect, Shelton is in much better shape today. especially school wise (I would not want my kids in either the Derby and Ansonia school districts) than the rest of the Valley and is now benefiting from the movement of people from the outrageously priced lower end of Fairfield County. Heck, Shelton is now trying to turn the old downtown river front into a true 'downtown' neighborhood.

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Shelton-sets-the-pace-for-changes-in-the-Valley-417421.php

 

[David 76]

Very prosperous? I always thought it was mostly solid blue collar.

 

[Hoophound]

Very prosperous? I always thought it was mostly solid blue collar.

I think his point was that "solid blue collar" with a living wage and the ability to provide for a family is prosperous when compared to the new economy where you are either white collar or poor except for a few trades. The loss of the manufacturing scene marked the beginning of the loss of the middle class. Sometimes people forget that there was a time when an experienced clerk at the local hardware store could sport a wife and three kids and pay the mortgage on a humble home in a nice, safe, hometown in this country. We are so far from that now that people ask the question, "Prosperous? Manufacturing? Making stuff in a factory was prosperous?" Kind of sad and I don't blame you for saying it because I don't want a factory job. However, this country would be a better place if some of these punks working 20 hours per week at Wendy's and otherwise draining society of resources could go to Naugatuck and make $25/hour making widgets.

 

[David 76]

I agree with everything you say and grew up in a blue collar town myself. I would have never have referred to East Haven as prosperous. Woodbridge maybe.
We agree on the damage of the societal change. But we disagree on the definition of prosperous.

 

[borninansonia]

Prosperous in the 60s, Ansonia, no. I grew up in Ansonia in the 1950s, left there in 1962. If my memory is correct, the big factories left Ansonia in the 50s, I remember the big empty buildings, the downtown had many vacant stores-- I don't ever remember Ansonia as prosperous (except when it comes to football).

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I agree with everything you say and grew up in a blue collar town myself. I would have never have referred to East Haven as prosperous. Woodbridge maybe.
We agree on the damage of the societal change. But we disagree on the definition of prosperous.

Juts my opinion; but, I define 'prosperous' as the ability for a family to provide 'everything' that their family needs (housing, food, supplies, etc.) have a decent car , go on a nice vacation once a year, save for college and retirement, etc. while not living paycheck to paycheck while also supporting via taxes a town that is safe, has good schools, nice parks, with a reasonable commute to work and access to local shopping and services. That is what Derby and Ansonia provided up to the late 70's or so and cannot provide today.

I am not sure I would call Woobridge 'prosperous' either until the last 20 years or so. Back in the '80's, Woodbridge was the sticks. I think a clearer example is Orange (for those who don't know, Orange, Woodbridge and Bethany share the same regional high school - Amity). Even in the early '80's, Orange has had the reputation of being one of the most 'affluent' towns in New Haven county and attracted higher income families from New Haven area, Milford, and the lower Valley.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Prosperous in the 60s, Ansonia, no. I grew up in Ansonia in the 1950s, left there in 1962. If my memory is correct, the big factories left Ansonia in the 50s, I remember the big empty buildings, the downtown had many vacant stores-- I don't ever remember Ansonia as prosperous (except when it comes to football).

I remember walking around with my family in downtown Ansonia in the late '70's and early '80's, especially going between the old Ansonia Mall and the bakery on Main St (Eddy's, which I believe is still there). The loss of the factory jobs and several other business along Main Street, such as the Ansonia Savings Bank HQ, the failure of the mall, and the ripple effect that hell hole that Olsen Drive/Riverside Apartments was killed downtown Ansonia.

 

[cohenzone]

I was 10 at the time and going to a day camp on West Hill Lake in New Hartford. I remember we usually left bathing suits on outdoor drying racks in a sort of cabana area. When the camp was able to reopen, the racks and bathing suits were long gone. As far as Winsted goes, if you see how really shallow the Mad River is, it's hard to believe what that did to the town.

Several years ago. but decades after the flood, I remember walking near the river and seeing occasional bricks in the water, likely remnants of the day. At the time of the storms,, there was a popular national TV show called The Big Story that dramatized actual newspaper stories. They had one on - I don't remember what newspaper they took it from - about an elderly couple that lived in an apartment building that was very close to the river. One of them drowned and what they went through up to the point that one was swept away and the aftermath was the focus of the story.

 

[cohenzone]

1955... We had just moved from the North End of Hartford to Bloomfield.
I can remember looking out our kitchen door at a steady sheet of rain during Diane. Mayfair Road filled several inches deep with water, flowed like a small brook from lawn to lawn, and retained a strange warmth from the rain that fell that day.
A few days later, we took the '49 Oldsmobile up toward Litchfield Co to survey the impact. In either Winstead or Torrington the main street had washed out. The manhole covers were undisturbed, but they sat atop their steel casements, like a row of stovepipe hats, sticking up about 5ft above the former street grade along Main St.

Where did you live in the North End. Isn't Mayfair just over the Hartford line off Tower Ave.? I lived in Blue Hills a few blocks from Tower in the Cornwall St. area.

 

[David 76]

My Dad was a bricklayer. He prided himself on the fact that he was paid a little better than his factory worker buddies. He supported a family of 6 on his income. My mother had some part-time jobs, usually around my father's injury or illness (his income went to $0)
We were clothed, ate well, never had a new car, rarely went on vacation, but if we did we, drove and it might involve staying at a friend or relatives. First time I flew I was well into my 20s.We rarely went to .restaurants (Mom cooked better anyway)

That is an example that the single, non-college educated, 40 hour income used to be viable he(and now it isn't).

Was it prosperous? I guess it is semantics. It was a decent living

 

[John]

My Dad was a bricklayer. He prided himself on the fact that he was paid a little better than his factory worker buddies. He supported a family of 6 on his income. My mother had some part-time jobs, usually around my father's injury or illness (his income went to $0)
We were clothed, ate well, never had a new car, rarely went on vacation, but if we did we, drove and it might involve staying at a friend or relatives. First time I flew I was well into my 20s.We rarely went to .restaurants (Mom cooked better anyway)

That is an example that the single, non-college educated, 40 hour income used to be viable he(and now it isn't).

Was it prosperous? I guess it is semantics. It was a decent living

My grandfather drove a beer truck and was a teamster - never got to management, he just drove and delivered his entire life. My grandmother did waitressing part time for a few years from what I was told by my mom, but was a stay at home mom for several years too. They raised 3 kids in a small house they owned (Burlington). They got new cars every 2 or 3 years (GMs, mostly Pontiacs), went on vacations (nothing fancy, but did get away). My grandfather liked to golf a lot, did public courses. Not sure that this type of life exists anymore.

 

[David 76]

No. No matter how we slice and dice how our families spent their money, whether they were prosperous or not; it doesn't exist as we knew it.
I feel bad that I have hijacked the thread. Back to the flood!

 

[superjohn]

I remember walking around with my family in downtown Ansonia in the late '70's and early '80's, especially going between the old Ansonia Mall and the bakery on Main St (Eddy's, which I believe is still there). The loss of the factory jobs and several other business along Main Street, such as the Ansonia Savings Bank HQ, the failure of the mall, and the ripple effect that hell hole that Olsen Drive/Riverside Apartments was killed downtown Ansonia.

I was always surprised by that Riverside apartments. Big urban projects are quite possibly the worst social experiment of the last 50 plus years and for a relatively small town those Riverside apartments had the feel of big city projects with big city problems.