The Eye of the Storm:
A Journey into the Natural Disasters in Connecticut

The Floods of 1955

In mid-August 1955 Hurricanes Connie and Diane, arriving less than one week apart, passed over southern New England. In their wake they left record levels of flooding and wreaked widespread havoc to the area. Connecticut experienced extensive property damage -- over $350,000,000 worth -- and loss of lives. The Housatonic, Naugatuck, and Quinebaug rivers saw record flooding. Towns and cities in Litchfield and Hartford counties were particularly hard hit, and the downtown section of the city of Winsted was completely washed away. The New Haven Railroad, the predominant railroad line in southern New England at the time, found seventy miles of track impassable and thirty-nine railroad bridges that needed to be repaired or replaced. In Connecticut alone, an estimated 4700 people were injured and seventy-seven killed and countless were left homeless.

< Waterbury, Connecticut, was inundated by floodwaters from the Naugatuck River following the deluge caused by Hurricanes Connie and Diane in August 1955.

< Derby, Connecticut, was devastated by flooding of the Housatonic River in August 1955.

< Flood waters of the Naugaturck River destroy a railroad bridge near the Seymour Manufacturing Company building in Seymour, Connecticut, after the Floods of 1955.

< The city of Waterbury, Connecticut, was devastated after the Floods of 1955. This view shows damage around the American Brass Company building.

< Tracks belonging to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad were extensively damaged in cities in Connecticut, including Derby, as shown here in this view taken by official company photographer Charles Gunn in August 1955.

< Using cranes and muscle, men labor to repair flood-damaged track belonging to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, following the Floods of August 1955.

Link to other essays in this Journey:

>> Introduction: The Eye of the Storm
>> The Blizzard of 1888
>> The Flood of 1936
>> The Hurricane of 1938
>> The Hurricane of 1944

>> Guideposts
>> Suggestions for further reading