Charles River flood, 1955
Created | Updated Jun 30, 2023
CREATE: THE GREAT CHARLES RIVER FLOOD OF AUGUST 1955
When the trailer park you live in is bounded by a major river, you had better hope the next 100-year flood isn't coming at you.
In August 1955, two hurricanes moved through Central and Eastern Massachusetts, bringing unimaginable amounts of rain. First there was Hurricane Connie, with 4-6 inches of rain. A week later, Hurricane Diane brought almost 20 inches over a two-day period.
I wasn't living in the park then, but I was close enough (30 miles to the west) that I got about the same amount of rain: the little brook in front of my family's house became a lake. The house had been built on the highest point of land on the three-acre lot. The building of the house had only been completed about a year and a half earlier. This was a test of the water-tightness of the cellar (it passed) and the culvert that carried the brook under the driveway (it failed, not surprisingly).
Meanwhile in Boston, in the trailer park I would someday live in, the Charles River began rising. And rising. And rising. Some of the longterm residents who were still in the Park when I moved in (1979) told me about those times. "You needed a rowboat to get from the road to what was 'The Hill'" (the Park's highest spot of land, with six trailers), the only part of the Park that wasn't flooded). The Park superintendent coped by jacking up the trailers to get them above water level. Then the water moved higher, and the trailers were jacked up even more. This happened several times. There was so much water across Central and Eastern Massachusetts that it took three or four weeks for it to drain.
Scroll forward to 2005, when the front part of the Park was discontinued, and thirty trailers were moved to the back of the Park. Mine was one of the ones to be moved, and I chose a lot as high above the river as I could get. Nowadays I enjoy walking along the river, hoping that flood-control methods have improved enough to tame all but the worst floods. (The current policy is to buy thousands of acres of wetlands that excess water can go into for storage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_River_Natural_Valley_Storage_Area). The trailers along the river could cope with water levels about two feet above flood stage (we've had those levels a few times since 1980; the water lapped at the edge of the lawns nearest the river). Three or four feet higher would bring water to the underside of my trailer.
As the first of the following links shows, the height of the flood (9.2 feet above flood stage in nearby Dover) was the flood "of record," meaning that these levels had not been recorded ever before.
http://www.weather.gov/nerfc/hf_august_1955
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/the-great-flood-of-1955/20730/
There are some who predict that climate change will cause storms to slow down, resulting in greater rainfall:
http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2018/09/25/boston-climate-change-fred-hewett
Oh, well. Might as well enjoy what I can while I still have it. Maybe I will be a fish in my next life....
When the trailer park you live in is bounded by a major river, you had better hope the next 100-year flood isn't coming at you.
In August 1955, two hurricanes moved through Central and Eastern Massachusetts, bringing unimaginable amounts of rain. First there was Hurricane Connie, with 4-6 inches of rain. A week later, Hurricane Diane brought almost 20 inches over a two-day period.
I wasn't living in the park then, but I was close enough (30 miles to the west) that I got about the same amount of rain: the little brook in front of my family's house became a lake. The house had been built on the highest point of land on the three-acre lot. The building of the house had only been completed about a year and a half earlier. This was a test of the water-tightness of the cellar (it passed) and the culvert that carried the brook under the driveway (it failed, not surprisingly).
Meanwhile in Boston, in the trailer park I would someday live in, the Charles River began rising. And rising. And rising. Some of the longterm residents who were still in the Park when I moved in (1979) told me about those times. "You needed a rowboat to get from the road to what was 'The Hill'" (the Park's highest spot of land, with six trailers), the only part of the Park that wasn't flooded). The Park superintendent coped by jacking up the trailers to get them above water level. Then the water moved higher, and the trailers were jacked up even more. This happened several times. There was so much water across Central and Eastern Massachusetts that it took three or four weeks for it to drain.
Scroll forward to 2005, when the front part of the Park was discontinued, and thirty trailers were moved to the back of the Park. Mine was one of the ones to be moved, and I chose a lot as high above the river as I could get. Nowadays I enjoy walking along the river, hoping that flood-control methods have improved enough to tame all but the worst floods. (The current policy is to buy thousands of acres of wetlands that excess water can go into for storage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_River_Natural_Valley_Storage_Area). The trailers along the river could cope with water levels about two feet above flood stage (we've had those levels a few times since 1980; the water lapped at the edge of the lawns nearest the river). Three or four feet higher would bring water to the underside of my trailer.
As the first of the following links shows, the height of the flood (9.2 feet above flood stage in nearby Dover) was the flood "of record," meaning that these levels had not been recorded ever before.
http://www.weather.gov/nerfc/hf_august_1955
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/the-great-flood-of-1955/20730/
There are some who predict that climate change will cause storms to slow down, resulting in greater rainfall:
http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2018/09/25/boston-climate-change-fred-hewett
Oh, well. Might as well enjoy what I can while I still have it. Maybe I will be a fish in my next life....
