Destruction of the Standpipe

The Destruction of the Standpipe was the catastrophic collapse of Derry's iconic water tower during the unprecedented storm of May 31st, 1985. The Standpipe, a white-shingled cylinder holding one and three-quarters million gallons of water, had stood on Kansas Street near the southern edge of the Barrens since the late nineteenth century, a landmark visible from across the town. Its fall was the single most dramatic physical event of the storm, unleashing a tidal wave that reshaped the landscape and contributed directly to the collapse of downtown Derry into the Canal.

The Collapse

The Standpipe's destruction was witnessed by Andrew Keene, Norbert Keene's grandson, who was wandering the storm-swept streets under the influence of marijuana. At approximately 9:50 A.M., Keene noticed the Standpipe had developed a pronounced lean, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. As the lean grew more acute, white shingles began to squirt off the downtown side, and a crinkle appeared about twenty feet above the stone foundation. Water sprayed through this crinkle, and the shingles began to spew into the windstream. The Standpipe moved like the hand of a great clock inclining from noon to one to two. Large twanging sounds came from inside as the cables that provided balance against the water pressure snapped one by one. The Standpipe heeled over faster and faster, boards and beams ripping apart, splinters jumping and whirling into the air. Keene, standing in a safe location where he could see it all, watched the entire structure fall.

The Tidal Wave and Its Path

As the Standpipe crashed to the ground, one and three-quarters million gallons of water—seven thousand tons—poured out of its ruptured side in a gray tidal wave. The water rolled over Memorial Park as a solid thing, sweeping away the sundial beside which a young Stan Uris had once stood watching birds, and the stone birdbath, which turned over and over before disappearing. A line of maples and birches separating Memorial Park from Kansas Street were knocked down like bowling pins, taking power lines with them. The water then crossed Kansas Street, still with enough power to sweep nearly a dozen houses off their foundations and into the Barrens. They went with sickening ease, most of them still whole. Keene recognized one as belonging to the Karl Massensik family, his former sixth-grade teacher, and saw a candle still burning in one window as the house went over the edge. An explosion from the Barrens followed as a Coleman gas lantern ignited oil from a ruptured fuel tank. The Standpipe itself, now horizontal and over a hundred and twenty-five feet long, rolled down the hill, its flashing warning light still blinking, and fell into the street with a final rending crash.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

The water from the Standpipe channelled down Kansas Street and rushed toward downtown by way of Up-Mile Hill. This massive surge of water, combined with the already raging flood, contributed to the collapse of downtown Derry into the Canal, which occurred at 10:02 A.M. The Standpipe's destruction was the most visually spectacular event of the storm, a physical manifestation of the town's unraveling. It was a landmark that had stood for generations, a symbol of Derry's permanence, and its fall signaled that nothing in the town was safe. The event also had a direct narrative echo: the Standpipe had been the site of Stanley Uris's terrifying encounter with the dead boys in 1958, and its destruction marked the final erasure of that childhood horror from the physical landscape. The water tower was never rebuilt, and its absence became a permanent scar on the town's skyline, a reminder of the day the cycle of terror ended in a cataclysm of nature.