Our property is located along the Housatonic River in Derby. From our location one can access Long Island Sound and beyond with vessel, but just north of us is the Ousatonic Dam (sometimes called the Derby Dam). This is what created the canals on both the Shelton and Derby sides of the river that provided water power for factories such as the building we occupy (once a munitions factory, then a textile print/dye factory, now a solar powered building products manufacturing company)
Being so close to the river, the spring thaws from upstream snow annually cause quite a rush of water over the dam with a roaring sound to draw the onlookers. This year, it was particularly impressive. Cars floating down the river, docks being torn away, and numerous homes under water. Our local online newspaper covered the flood story and this video shows the dam from the Shelton side of the river (our facility is just out of view further downstream on the Derby side) with the fury of the river at it's 5th highest level ever.
Our property has some low lying frontage on the shore that gets covered in such spring storms and quickly dries out as the waters recede. Below is some video that shows the aftermath. Taken on Thu Mar10, 2011.
This next video begins at the most downstream corner of our property, and walks upstream to show why the under-story vegetation along a river bank is so important to maintain it's integrity and keep from being scoured away. In fact, the event left behind a layer of silt at least 6" deep.
And although it looks like the water was close to our building, this particular parcel's structure was constructed after the 1955 flood (which was several feet about this 2011 event), and the foundation was not impacted, as you can see by this last video.
