Remembering the Flood of 1927

Many of us will long remember the winter of 2010-11 for the terrific amount of snow, the missed school days and the pulled muscles in our backs. Every generation has its weather stories; some can help to put our recent problems in perspective.

The flooding of Nov. 2-5, 1927, is etched in the minds of people from Vermont to Connecticut, particularly those who lived near the Connecticut River.

A hurricane-turned-tropical-storm roared up through the Connecticut River Valley, bringing rain. Then it stalled. In the course of three days it dumped up to 15 inches of rain on river towns in Vermont and New Hampshire. The Connecticut River swelled, then it brought its abundance of water south to Massachusetts and Connecticut.

In Vermont, 84 people died when dams broke, bridges washed out and houses were swept away.

The rising river water reached Middletown on Nov. 6.

In those days, there were no flood controls in place to keep the Connecticut River or its tributaries from overflowing their banks and inundating the downtown area. It was the Flood of 1927 and the Flood of 1936 that put Connecticut engineers to work exploring ways to minimize the damage.

The photographs to the right tell the story.

The first photo shows Hartford Avenue before Route 9 existed. The Shoreline Railroad crossed above the roadway that brought cars to and from Cromwell along River Road. Can anyone identify the types of cars in the photograph?

A factory building in the second photograph illustrates well the height of the rising waters on Nov. 6, 1927.  I think this mill is the former Union Mill, owned by this time by Charles Cole and used for his feed and grain business. The Coles' building was torn down in the 1950s for Acheson Drive, forerunner of Route 9.

Stay tuned: Come on back at 5 p.m. to see more photos of the Flood of 1927