60th anniversary of the Flood of 1955

WINSTED —  It was, and still is, the worst natural disaster to hit Winsted in its 265-year history.

The Flood of 1955 took place 60 years ago this week.

By the time the flood ended on Aug. 20, 1955, buildings throughout town were destroyed or damaged, businesses on the Mad River side of Main Street were all gone, Main Street itself was practically destroyed, many residents were homeless and seven residents lost their lives.

Verna Gilson, who leads the Genealogy and Local History Department of the Beardsley and Memorial Library, has kept records from the disaster, including various newspaper articles, books and pictures.

Along with Gilson’s records, several residents who were around for the Flood of 1955 were recently interviewed for this article by The Winsted Journal.

Impetus of the flood

According to records,the impetus of the flood started on Aug. 17 when Hurricane Diane made its way through North Carolina.

“When it first started my family was living at Pleasant Street, the opposite of Adams Street,” resident Tom Casey said. “It was raining like crazy. We had gotten some rain earlier and the ground was saturated with it. There was nowhere else for the rain to go.”

“It seemed like it poured for almost a week,” EllenJayne King said.

On Aug. 18, the heavy rains started to subside at 5 p.m., but only for a brief time, as the rain started again an hour later.

The next night, on Aug. 19 at around 1 a.m., the water from the heavy rain flooded Main Street and damaged Meadow Street.

Moe Gabelmann’s father, Charles, was the desk sergeant for the Winchester Police Department at the time of the flood, while his brother, Charles Jr., was a beat officer.

“My dad was stuck in the police station along with several other residents,” Gabelmann said. “My brother was out on patrol on Main Street right about where The Winsted Journal’s office is now [396 Main St.]. The water was coming down to Elm Street and one of the cars from the Buick store floated down to one of the stores and crashed into it. My brother Charlie got down to the police station but he was confined there until the next day.”

“We didn’t have the dams for the river,” King said. “Both Highland Lake and Crystal Lake overflowed and came down to Main Street. Water was rushing down the hill from the lakes with such velocity. We couldn’t hear what our neighbors were saying to us from across the street and this went on all night.”

The Mad River rose to more than 14 feet and flooded its banks, while flood waters reached up to 16 feet and streets were ripped up down to eight feet deep.

“My father took a row boat and tried to rescue someone on Main Street,” Casey said. “The row boat came in handy because it saved a couple of lives.”

At 3 a.m. the National Guard was called to Winsted.

“Pearson School is where the National Guard came and gave water and food,” Casey said.

Approximately 1,500 residents were left homeless.

Remembering the damage

Robert McCarthy, reporter for The Winsted Evening Citizen, wrote in the first issue of the newspaper published after the flood on Sept. 23, 1955: “Hundreds of persons flocked to the river’s edge that dreadful Friday morning to watch industry, retail stores and homes being swept away in the raging torrent. It was hard to believe, but there it was, and nothing could be done about it.”

“Oh my God, the flood ripped out holes on Main Street six to seven feet deep,” Gabelmann said. “Gas mains, water mains, sewer mains, everything was exposed in the street. All the buildings on the river disintegrated or moved down the street.”

“It was terrible,”Casey remembered. “Everything on Main Street was all torn up. Whole bedrocks of road were all pulled up. Jagged pieces of concrete were sticking up, almost like an earthquake had happened. Everything on the river side was gone. We saw cars from several dealers floating down Mad River. It was pretty horrific.”

“Main Street was gone,” King said. “The buildings on the river side were either gone or just heaps of hanging pieces. We could hear falling buildings all night long. All night long, crash, bang, everything coming down Mad River.”

King’s family owned Rose Sullivan’s Shoppe, a clothing store on Main Street.

“Our only thought was, ‘OK, there is nothing left of the store,’” King said. “When morning came, the National Guard wouldn’t let anyone access Main Street because there wasn’t much left of the bridges. By the time we finally got there, it was just a couple of pieces of clothing hanging on the wall and everything else was gone. The whole back of the building fell into the river.”

According to historical data, 170 out of the 200 businesses located parallel to the Mad and Still rivers were destroyed.

McCarthy reported in The Winsted Evening Citizen that 95 percent of the town’s industry had all been wiped out.

“The pressure of the water was so great that it gutted the street to the depth of 10 feet in the center of the city,” McCarthy wrote. “The sidewalks, although still in existence, lay in disorder four feet below their original position, smashed to bits.” 

The financial loss to the town was $30,123,190, and industrial damage was estimated at $4,889,050.

Seven people died in the flood, all of them drowned, with the last body recovered 13 days after the flood ended. (Click here for full list of victims)

President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared the state a disaster area, and Governor Abraham Ribicoff viewed the town from a helicopter on Aug. 20.

Spreading the news

Mayor Francis Hicks posted disaster bulletins around town to keep residents informed of the disaster efforts.

The Pearson School was used by The National Guard to bring supplies into town via helicopter.

Steven Vaill is the son of Theodore Vaill, who owned The Winsted Evening Citizen.

“We were on a train trip coming back from British Columbia at the time of the flood,” Vaill said. “There wasn’t much communication at all during the trip. We didn’t realize the flood had happened until we got to Calgary and the front page had Winsted on it.”

Vaill said it took three days to get back to Winsted.

“We had to stop at the state police barracks to get a pass because no one was letting anyone into Winsted,” Vaill said. “When we got to Winsted there was no water or sewer. My father was more concerned about his employees than his business.”

Vaill said that his father would take news printed over the Associated Press’ teletype printer and stick the pages of news on the windows of the office.

“People came to the newspaper’s office to read the news in the window,” he said. “The printing press for the newspaper was all full of mud. The fire department came to wash the press down and get the press back into working condition.”

Vaill said residents had to deal with unique conditions during the first few weeks after the flood.

“Since we didn’t have sewer or water, my job was to go to the brook for water,” he said. “We didn’t use the water to drink but for other things, like flushing the toilet. The drinking water and food was at Pearson School. Everyone had to get medical shots to protect us from disease. I had to stand in line for an hour or two to get food, but everyone was very calm and courteous to everyone else.”

Vaill said that the military set up temporary Bailey Bridges in order for residents to travel.

Eventually the Board of Selectmen ordered that all damaged buildings in town were to be condemned.

All buildings between Division and Oak streets were demolished due to the flood damage.

Existing businesses, including King’s family store Rose Sullivan’s Shoppe, would open for a time in residential areas.

“We opened the store in the living room of the house,” King said. “We wanted to keep going after the flood.”

The reconstruction of Main Street started in December 1955.

While utilities took several months to replace and operate again, the entire cleanup of the flood took almost five years to finish.

Sixty years later, Main Street is now a four-lane road. 

None of the businesses that operated on the Mad River side of Main Street ever rebuilt or reopened.

The town did not schedule any commemoration ceremonies or events to coincide with the anniversary of the Flood of 1955. However, there is a memorial plaque at East End Park with the names of the seven victims of the flood.

The town has changed quite a bit from before and after the flood, but residents who lived in Winsted at the time still remember it.

“It was a very difficult time to go through, not just for businesses, but everyone who lived here,” John Vaccari said. “It took a long time before we got Main Street back in order. It’s hard to imagine that, back in 1955, Main Street was entirely different than it is now.”

Click here for another photo.