About Connections: Love it or hate it, history is a map. Those who hate history think it irrelevant; many who love history think it escapism. In truth, history is the clearest road map to how we got here: America in the 21st century.
There are many causes of floods in the Northeast: snow melt, heavy rain, or a dam break.
In 1927 the Ballou Reservoir dam in Becket burst. The water destroyed or severely damaged 54 buildings in the village. There was only one death but it is safe to say the center of Becket was destroyed.
Record-breaking rainfall in March 1927 overburdened and finally broke the dam. Roads were awash, railroads were washed out; everyone was marooned as the waters raged around them. Police, firemen, and the National Guard were pressed into to service to keep the peace and rescue people from a myriad of places that were safe under normal circumstances. Now, however, homes were feet deep in water without potable water, clean food, heat, or a safe purchase.
In just hours, a great wall of water bore down on the little town of Becket, unleashed by bursting dams in turn swollen by torrential rains. Three people were dead; others were missing.
The flood was not limited to Berkshire County. In a five-state area, many more were dead.
In the aftermath, even as the waters receded, the destruction and debris were revealed. The people were shellshocked as if refugees of war.
The least common cause of flooding and the most devastating is hurricane. Eleven years later there was a flood that rivaled that of 1927.
September 21, 1938
No dam broke but a powerful hurricane let loose. It was classified as a Category 5 storm and earned the name “The Great Hurricane.”
The onset was dramatic enough and should have been telltale. The day before, there was enough wind to blow debris down the streets of North Adams, Adams, Pittsfield, and Lee. Still, no weathermen perceived the danger. Even when it was over, they shook their heads and said it should not have happened, but happen it did.
The next day the Great Hurricane blew in and caused floods reported to be “the worst since the floods of 1927.”
Even with the winds on September 20 seemingly heralding what would come, Berkshire County was taken by surprise.
Unprepared, the storm ravaged property but worse — it caused 600 deaths across New England. Seven hundred families were evacuated from their homes. All communications were wiped out. Martial law was declared.
The waters, unchecked, were swift and angry enough to carry a Model T down the road. Huge swathes of the county were submerged in water: downtown North Adams, downtown Adams, and Lee were rivers. The rain kept coming, the rivers kept swelling, and the danger increased.
North Adams was submerged and the damage was estimated in excess of $100,000. Damage to private property was estimated at twice that amount. Mills were idle. No water or electricity was available.
While that seems bad enough, damage in Adams was worse. There was six to eight feet of standing water across Adams. That amount of water caused whole buildings to collapse.
In Pittsfield, police rescued people from flooded areas including their own homes. Only boats could traverse the streets. Homes were all but submerged and were without heat, light, food, or water. The number of families in need of extricating rose to 100.
Water rushed into buildings unimpeded, wiped out bridges, and carried many hapless humans away to their deaths. Even whole houses were loosed from their moorings and carried away. People rushing to safety in the nick of time remembered too late that family pets were left behind.
Then, to add to the already intolerable situation, a dam broke. The police cautioned the worst was yet to come and they were right. Overnight the Green Pond, Goose Pond and Taylor dams followed suit.
In the light of the following day, the desolation was startling. Furthermore, Berkshire County was not alone: Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were devastated. As the storm passed and the waters began to recede, people took stock of the death toll and damage in dollars. It was staggering: 600 were dead and there was over $2.5 million in damages (roughly equivalent to $42 million today).
Storms are always called angry. The adjective reflects not the characteristics of the storm, but the feelings engendered in the people caught in them. They feel assaulted by the storm and under attack. These storms did attack the Berkshires and left ruin in their wakes. The descriptions of the aftermaths were like descriptions of battlefields, and yet Berkshire recovered and, like those brave people vowed in 1879, all marks of the storms have disappeared.
