Flood Relief – Hartford CT

Description

The WPA was involved in flood repair and relief multiple times in the Connecticut region, including in 1936 and 1938.

“The disastrous storm and flood of March 1936 led W.P.A. officials to turn their efforts wherever possible to assistance, relief and rehabilitation programs. The Writers’ Project assigned many of its people to collecting information to document the story of the disaster, of people’s reactions to it, and of the rehabilitation work. In Hartford a special effort was made, at the Mayor’s request, to prepare a history of the flood, but it appears never to have been completed.”   (www.cslib.org)

“W.P.A. money and labor played a critical role in Connecticut in the aftermath of a huge hurricane in 1938 which killed more than 90 state residents. Hundreds of W.P.A. workers were dispatched to Hartford to build sandbag walls along the Connecticut River in the city’s South End, enabling the city to avoid blowing up a dike elsewhere to help divert the river.” (https://www.nytimes.com)