55 Years ago today -Floods of '55

I came across these websites looking for past flood pictures on the Danbury Branch after this week's washout in Bethel. Some amazing photos of the Naugatuck Valley as well as Norwalk.

Judging by the erosion shown at the Commerce Street crossing in Norwalk, the river must have been flowing right through the Wall Street tunnel!

http://www.thefloodof1955.com/

http://www.cslib.org/flood1955.htm

trainsinmaine wrote:Which of these events was the one that permanently severed the Air Line between Pomfret and Putnam?

The Great Flood in Aug. '55 washed out the RR bridge in Putnam over the Quinnebaug river.
Also the NYNH&H RR yard, and a good portion of the city of Putnam itself.
The north end span of the thru truss bridge out to the center of river pier remained in place until approx 1966-67, when it was scrapped.
The south span was carried downriver, never to be replaced. This was on the Putnam-Willimantic-Hartford (ex-NY&NE) "inland" main line.
The nearby Putnam to New London (ex-Norwich and Worcester) line was rebuilt in late '55, and is owned and operated by today's Providence & Worcester RR.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed the West Thompson Dam upriver of Putnam to control any future flooding.

Ridgefielder wrote: Judging by the erosion shown at the Commerce Street crossing in Norwalk, the river must have been flowing right through the Wall Street tunnel!

It did indeed flow through the Wall Street Tunnel. By the time the floodwaters reached Norwalk the Norwalk River had been rushing down its whole 17 mile length in a torrent breaking Mill Pond dams*** along the way as it went; and in addition, in northern Norwalk the floodwaters from the Silvermine River got added ---- so..... there was one hell of a lot of water rushing into Norwalk!

Also --- and I suppose this is probably mentioned somewhere else in this thread --- there were TWO 1955 floods. The one that destroyed the Naugatuck, and Farmington, and Quinebaug rivers was Hurricane Diane on August 19-20. The one that washed down the Norwalk River basin (and Silvermine, and Rippowam rivers) was October 14-15. That one was NOT a hurricane, rather a somewhat localized pocket of extremely heavy rain centered in northern Fairfield and southern Litchfield counties.

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*** This has nothing to do with the thread but I can't resist throwing in a personal note: one of the Mill Pond dams washed out was on the property of Stonehenge Inn on Route 7. It was rebuilt for sure --- and one day just three weeks short of the 20th anniversary of the flood there was a photo taken atop that very Mill
Pond dam of my wife and me on our wedding day. Thank God we're going strong 36 years after that photo!!!

If you ever go to Thomaston Dam right by the Naugy tracks you can still clearly see the high water mark from the floods. I grew up in Bristol, and the floods are etched into the city's history. Taught about them in school, and my whole family and every lifelong resident who was around then has vivid stories of the carnage. One of the defining moments of the 20th century for that whole area. With what it did pushing already teetering industry and transportation over the edge the long-term effects are still being quantified to this day.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:If you ever go to Thomaston Dam right by the Naugy tracks you can still clearly see the high water mark from the floods. I grew up in Bristol, and the floods are etched into the city's history. Taught about them in school, and my whole family and every lifelong resident who was around then has vivid stories of the carnage. One of the defining moments of the 20th century for that whole area. With what it did pushing already teetering industry and transportation over the edge the long-term effects are still being quantified to this day.

Until the mid '90s there was a sign on a telegraph pole on the embankment across the tracks from the station in Branchville indicating the high water mark from '55. As I recall it was practically level with the eaves of the depot. I grew up hearing similar stories about what the October '55 floods did to the Norwalk River valley.

Likewise for many years there was a painted water level mark from the 1955 flood on the south end wall of the Derby station on the Waterbury branch, about 5 or 6 feet off the ground. It was cleaned off about twenty years ago when the building was sold and renovated. Floodwalls now prevent a recurrence of that sort of disaster.

The Derby station was luckier that the one in Ansonia, which was demolished after the floods and replaced by the rather spartan platform shelter that is still in use today.