In the space of less than a week in mid-August 1955, hurricanes
Connie and Diane blustered through southern New England
as they were winding down into tropical storms. Arriving toward
the end of a wetter-than-usual summer, the combined storms
dropped over 20 inches of rain on the region, leaving record
levels of flooding and widespread havoc in their wake.
Many Connecticut rivers, particularly the Housatonic,
Naugatuck, Still, Quinebaug, Mad, and Farmington, overflowed
their banks as never before; towns and cities in Litchfield and
Hartford counties were particularly hard hit. The downtowns of
many cities were devastated, including Winsted where the
downtown was completely washed away. Property damage
mounted into the tens of millions of dollars. Almost 100 people
were killed, an estimated 4700 were injured, and countless others
were left homeless.
This exhibit of photographs and documents from the
Connecticut Business and Railroad History collections in Archives
& Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center
shows the impact of the flood on the infrastructure and industry
of the state and illustrates the companies’ efforts to rebuild and
restore service to their customers.
May 31 – August 19, 2005
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Industrial damage to businesses with factories located on the
rivers was considerable. The American Brass Company sustained
over $15,000,000 in damage to its Waterbury, Ansonia, and
Torrington plants. Southern New England Telephone Company,
which served all of Connecticut, was faced with submerged
equipment and thousands of downed lines. The destruction
wreaked on its mills was the direct cause of the Wauregan-
Quinebaug Textile Company’s demise in 1958.
The New Haven Railroad, the predominant railroad line of
southern New England, was already suffering financial hardship
from the effects of post-war America’s growing reliance on the
automobile and airplane travel. It found itself hard-pressed to
come up with the financial resources to rebuild the seventy miles
of track and dozens of railroad bridges that were shattered by
the storms. After the flood took out a bridge west of Putnam, the
railroad ended service between Willimantic and Pomfret.