In the waning weeks of the summer of 1955, during the tourist season, Barrett Township was struck by the greatest natural disaster to affect it in more than a century. After an especially dry summer, two successive hurricanes, Connie and Diane, hit the area; Connie drenched it, and before the water could recede, Diane struck on the afternoon and evening of August 18th. The community was ill-prepared, and fast-rising waters caught residents and visitors by surprise. The flooding devastated local infrastructure, making automobile travel almost impossible in any direction into and out of the township, destroying or severely damaging 22 of its 26 bridges, and ruining train tracks in many areas so that rail travel became impossible and some passenger trains were stranded, including one north of Cresco Station whose some 250 passengers had to be evacuated. Helicopter access became the only feasible way into and out of the township, and supplies and medical needs were handled that way. The flood also destroyed many local dams and roads, and failed dams sent torrents of water downstream that created log jams and added to the destruction; most of those dams were never replaced. In some places, streams changed course. Many businesses and residences were destroyed or badly damaged, some were moved off their foundations, and several were never replaced. Cemeteries were damaged as well, with headstones and remains disturbed, some coffins upended and carried downstream, and several lives were lost before Barrett Township gradually recovered through a herculean effort.