After the catastrophic gasoline spill on Nov. 5, a longtime firefighter remarked that the disaster was in the top three to have hit Norfolk townwide, the others being the destruction of the Hardware Store on Station Place by fire in 1987 and the flood of 1955. The Hardware Store fire was discovered at 3 o’clock on an early September morning, and it took the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department over three hours pouring about 4,000 gallons of water per minute on the fire to extinguish the blaze. The DEP warned farmers to keep their cattle away from the Blackberry River for fear that it would be polluted with contaminants. The disastrous flood of August 19, 1955, followed an unprecedented 23 inches of rainfall in Norfolk. As the Blackberry River overflowed its banks and rampaged down Greenwoods Road, houses, bridges and trees were washed away, along with two miles of Route 44 near West Norfolk, pictured here.

Text by — Ann Havemeyer
Photo courtesy of the Norfolk Historical Society