Evening star., 1955-09-20
BY SAUL PETIT

ASSOCIATES FresS NeNs1eatufes Wfitef
WINSTED, Conn, Sept. 90
The river flows quietly today, it
muddy water reaching only {
depth Of u or 1S inches. a width
Of maybe 20 feet.
Catching the sunlight, thu
river looks all innocence now
the way a psychopathic chile
can look angelically innocent
after burning the house down
An around it, bulldozers and der.
ricks and men with shoyels arr
digging out in funereal gloom
but the river pretends no con-
nection, seems to ask. 'Who
me?"
This is the same Mad River
which lived up to its name q
month ago, rushed over its banks
to q depth Of 80 feet and In one
terrible night cut the heart out
of Winsted.
1t killed seven persons, left
$500 homeless. destroyed 172 Of
the 200 shops along Main street
washed out or immobilized SO
factories. carried OF whole
houses, buildings. cars, trees and
life works.
People Are Fighting Back
Only the river now maintains
q fraudulent serenity. The rest
Of Winsted swings between ris-
ing hope and deepening gloom,
between lingering shock and q
slowly-growing awareness Of the
disasters enormity.
But no one is alone. No one
Is starving. No one is without
roof. No one is without clothes.
People are fighting back. People
are helping each other in many
inspiring ways.
Physically, downtown Winsted
still looks like it was blitzed.
Main street, where the river
gouged out a channel 10 feet
deep, has been refilled, but not
yet repaved. Water, light, tele-
phone services have been re-
stored, but half the town is still
without gas. Two Of the l3
bridges lost have been replaced
by Army Bailey bridges.
Where they still stand on
Main street, buildings look like
corpses waiting to be buried, like
bodies with empty eye sockets.
Some are shredded in half, YER
tically or horizontally, with pipes,
wires, pieces Of twisted metal
hanging down like ruptured
veins.
For Sale-Junk, Cheap
In one store, a ceiling still sits
on a crushed new car. In an
other, q twisted. empty lunch
eonette, there's this sign: "Spe-
cial today for sale-ju junk,
cheap"
Outside Of town, trucks keep
rolling to the city dump with the
remains Of refrigerators, furni-
ture, roofs, cars. In what used
to be a playground. there are
pieces Of fencing and other de-
bris high in the trees. Out on q
meadow, the high school football
team practices in jeans. Their
field and uniforms were lost.
On higher ground. in the re-
sidential area, merchants are
trying to come back to life. You
see crudely printed signs on Elm
trees announcing the temporary
headquarters of q hardware store
or barber shop or clothier. You
f1nd them in homes, in garages.
in barns and fraternal organiza-
tions which have thrown open
their club rooms to the flooded
out merchants.
In the Elks Auditorium
against a backdrop of stained
glass windows and signs pro-
claiming "Brotherly love, fidelity,
justice and charity" you find
the temporary headquarters of
the West-End Barber Shop, Sex
auer Jewellers, Smiths Mems
Shop, Winsted News and United
Cigars, the Modern Dress Shop
and the local Buick dealer (he
lost all his 18 cars in the flood
but Is taking orders now.)
l,400 Men JobIess
The Sears-Roebuck store now
Is probably the smallest in the
national chain. It temporarily