The final portion of the 1955 WKNB film begins with the ongoing fundraising efforts focused on providing relief directly to the communities most impacted. Ultimately the telethon raised nearly a quarter million dollars. 

Since the newsreel was not compiled until the following year, the editors had the benefit of time to reflect not only on the August flooding but again in October when different meteorological conditions led to similar circumstances, Most hard hit this time was southwest Connecticut where an estimated $35 million damage was suffered in addition to what had already been felt from the August flood. 

 ​Part two of the newsreel begins in New Hartford, along the Farmington River where factories, roads, homes and bridges and automobiles were destroyed. In Bristol, the news crews followed along with damage assessment teams an estimated $3 1/2 damage was sustained during the flooding. Utility companies were beginning to arrive to restore electric and gas service to the community. 

The Farmington River raged in Avon, washing the Avon Diner across State Route 44. Just upstream, in Unionville (pop. 5000), factories and mill buildings collapsed and more highway roads were destroyed. Reporters continue north to historic Collinsville, on the west branch of the Farmington River in the Town of Canton where the Collins Company, known for manufacturing world-class axes, hatchets and machetes was "...pulverized. Flashboards swept away. The dam was breached." A highway bridge was destroyed. 

In the first of three parts, this newsreel-style film (13:42) of the August 1955 flood begins with original footage of the 1936 Flood in Hartford where displaced people are being cared for in emergency shelters. The short retrospective concludes with crews working on massive infrastructure projects, redirecting of the Park River from Bushnell Park to bypass the Capitol, and constructing flood walls along the Connecticut River. Much of the infrastructure seemed to prove effective as the City of Hartford was largely inconvenienced but did not suffer damage on the scale of the surrounding communities along the tributaries. 

Like other cities in New England, Bangor played a pivotal role in the Second Industrial Revolution in the United States after the War of 1812. However, Bangor was not involved with manufacturing as much as it was a hub of lumber harvesting, milling and shipping to other cities around the country. Trees were cut in northern Maine and dropped into the Penobscot River and its tributaries. They floated downstream to water-powered mills and cut into lumber which was then either used to build ships in Bangor or distributed via the port of Bangor to other cities along the east coast and eventually westward. By 1860, there were 150 sawmills operating along the Penobscot River, according to the City of Bangor historical society. In 1902, the population of Bangor was about 22 thousand people. 

Located furthest east of the Connecticut River, The Town of Athol was an important hub during the Second Industrial Revolution. Built along the banks of the Millers River, factories and mills used the water power to manufacture textiles, leather, wood and metal products. Growth was supported by development of railroads, making distribution of manufactured goods around the country more efficient.

One example, first established in 1880, the L.S. Starrett company was an important part of the industrial revolution, known for designing and manufacturing precision tools, including what has become the modern micrometer. On March 13, 1936, an article in the Boston Globe noted that a ten-mile long ice jam on the Millers River had destroyed a dam releasing a torrent of water, ice and debris downstream tearing away a 15-foot by 20 foot corner of the foundation from under the four-story factory and endangering the lives of the forty workers inside at the time. No one was seriously injured during the incident, according to the Globe. 

​Elsewhere in town, damage at the Athol Manufacturing Company resulted in containers of high-explosives being released which floated down river until they were retrieved by workers without further incident. Main streets and side streets were inundated and damage was also sustained by water supply, electrical, telephone and telegraph systems but was restored by crews, according to the Globe. The Daniel Shays bridge was damaged but stood the flood. 

​The rain came in two waves, the first flood deposited thousands of ice chunks of downtown Athol, according to the Orange Enterprise and Journal. These chunks were quickly washed away by the second storm’s deluge passing through town on March 19th.

References:

​Flood Views of Franklin County, Frank H. Jones, Orange Sentinel, Lake Pleasant, Mass., 1936.

The State Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plan is an innovative and comprehensive approach to combining the traditional Hazard Vulnerability Analysis employed in Hazard Mitigation Plans by Emergency Management professionals with the impacts that climate change and detailed in Climate Adaptation Plans will likely be delivering to communities in Massachusetts, both coastal and inland. While not exclusively focused on flooding, rising waters will play a significant role in many of the scenarios. 

This initial post will just be an introduction on the SHMCAP and over time, we can investigate different aspects of the plan and highlight important elements. 

Download the fact sheet above on the RMAT program including:  

• Consistent standards for using climate projection data in projects with physical assets;
• Guidelines and best practices for implementing climate resilient standards;
• A resilient benefit evaluation web-tool for capital planning.

The City of Lowell is widely considered the place where the Second Industrial Revolution, if not launched, certainly took firm footing and went on to serve as a template other communities around New England would mimic, albeit with different scale and specialties. Core to the success of Lowell was it’s location along the Merrimack River and the network of canals that were built beginning in the 1790’s and continuing for decades, culminating in the opening of the Northern Canal in 1847. All told, the Lowell Power Canal system remains the largest in the U.S. at over five miles long, producing an estimated 10 thousand horsepower. It is simply an amazing example of engineering. 

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One component of this system that stands out among many is the Great Gate that was designed by Chief Engineer James B. Francis. Built in 1850 at the entrance of the 4,374 feet long, 20-feet wide, 100-feet deep Northern Canal to prevent the Merrimack River flooding downtown Lowell, it was widely ridiculed as a failure, branded with the moniker “Francis’ Folly”. Two years later the gate was lowered and proved effective by protecting the city of Lowell from devastation when the Merrimack rose to 60.6 feet. The Great Gate was lowered again during the Great Flood of 1936 when the river reached a record 68.8 feet at that location, again during the 1938 New England Hurricane (60.6 feet). The gate was damaged by vandalism in the 1970’s and when repaired, upgrades were made. Lowered again during the Mother’s Day Flood of 2006 and one more time, in 2007, the Great Gate has prevented incalculable damage to the City of Lowell. 



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The Williston Railroad Bridge over the Winooski River in northern Vermont stood but the tracks approaching it were heavy damaged from the 1927 Flood. Much of the line between Essex Junction and White River Junction was destroyed when 6-10 inches of rain fell over the region in beginning November 2nd until the 4th. More than 1200 bridges were washed away and the Central Vermont Railroad went bankrupt afterwards.
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​84 people were killed, including the Lieutenant Governor, Hollister Jackson when his car became stuck in rising water, and he drowned. 

The US EPA has developed a program designed to help communities in New England improve disaster mitigation and overall resiliency ahead of anticipated impacts from climate change. Resilience and Adaptation in New England (RAINE) is actually a searchable, sortable database of a variety of resources ranging from reports, plans and websites at the local, regional and state level. RAINE provides a logical bridge between the traditional comprehensive emergency management cycle and the relatively new Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) approach now being promoted by FEMA, which is heavily influenced on more established environmental climate adaptation approaches by proposing more holistic and sustainable solutions. 

In order to fully understand the connections between traditional emergency management and those that utilize NBS, it may be helpful first to review the glossary of terms the EPA prepared.

​Download the file for your reference at the link at the end of this post.