The 100-Year Storm: Checking in with the experts who really care - dam safety professionals

摘要

Rain had been falling in Connecticut for several days on June 5, 1982, when a torrent began. For the next two days, 14 to 16 inches fell onto already rain-soaked ground and then rushed toward streams and rivers, breaking through 17 dams. The experts compared this spring storm to a winter Nor'easter without the cold temperatures. Witnesses had seen nothing like this ever, and probably never would again. In the lower Connecticut River Valley, the storm changed the landscape. A dam on Bushy Hill Lake in Ivoryton broke at 12:30 a.m. on June 6,, emptying the lake. The flow swept away houses and smaller dams as it raged through the village. The course of the nearby Falls River was altered. At the bottom of what used to be Bushy Hill Lake, century-old tree trunks, left from when the lake was first dammed, stood exposed.