John B. Donohue Inman, SC
I was starting in a new job at Pratt and Whitney in East Hartford, Conn., that Monday right after the flood. I drove over from Albany, N.Y., early that morning and was detoured around Winsted, which was devastated by the Mad River, which tore up the Main Street. (I did not see that until the following Saturday)

As I got back on Route 44, on that trip over, I had to drive around a bloated dead cow on her back with the legs straight up. It had washed up onto the highway. There were other objects near or on the road, but that cow jarred me and got my full attention.

Pratt had workers that commuted from the area, and in the following days I gradually began to hear stories of the aptly named Mad River, along Winsted's Main Street. And a week or two later I slowly drove through there as I returned to the Albany area, as I was still looking to rent a house or apartment in Connecticut.

I did eventually live in Coventry, Conn., for almost fifty years. It was a nice place to raise a family.