Gifford - Hurricane Hazel Canadas storm of the century

HURRICANE HAZEL

For Eleanor

HURRICANE HAZEL

Canadas Storm of the Century

Jim Gifford

Copyright Jim Gifford, 2004

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Copy-Editor: Andrea Pruss

Design: Jennifer Scott

Printer: Friesens

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Gifford, Jim

Hurricane Hazel : Canadas storm of the century / Jim Gifford.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-55002-526-0

1. Hurricane Hazel, l954. I. Title.

1 2 3 4 5 08 07 06 05 04

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporations Ontario Book Initiative.

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J. Kirk Howard, President

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FOREWORD

BY MIKE FILEY

THE YEAR WAS 1954; THE DATE, OCTOBER 15; the weather, wet... boy was it wet! Back then I was still just a kid. Well, to be absolutely honest, I had graduated from kid to teenager just four days earlier. I was living in the family home on Elvina Gardens in North Toronto, and as strange as this may seem, the idea that a hurricane might be approaching the city was totally absurd. Sure there had been mention of Hazel in the previous days newspapers, but hurricanes only happened south of the border... didnt they? On that special Friday there had been a lot of rain, but what the heck, thered been lots of rain that entire week. But now, as I made my way home from school, it seemed as if the rain was coming down even harder.

Thinking back a half-century, the idea that a hurricane might be headed our way wasnt even mentioned on the citys one television station (CBLT, Channel 9) or on any of the local radio newscasts. At 4:00 P.M. I began my afternoon delivery job at the late Pat Higginss place, Mount Pleasant Fish and Chips, where, if it wasnt busy, I would scrub and peel potatoes. This being a Friday night (and with certain religious beliefs still very much in place) there wasnt time for that. All of my time would be spent delivering either halibut and chips (at thirty cents an order) or haddock and chips (same chips, different fish, twenty-five cents an order).

The shop wasnt far from the corner of Broadway Avenue and Mount Pleasant Road, where the pair of streets met in a minor hollow. As the afternoon turned into evening, that hollow began to fill with water so that by six or seven oclock, as I wheeled my bike through the intersection to deliver orders on the other side of Mount Pleasant, water would come in over the top of my boots. This was some deluge. The day ended and I went to bed, rain still pelting the windows of my bedroom. And still I hadnt heard the word hurricane. And, in fact, didnt until the following morning, when all of the country learned that this witch called Hurricane Hazel had caused such great loss of life and inflicted tremendous damage to the north and west of the city.

I felt bad that while all of this was going on, my main concern was getting those fish and chip orders through.

MIKE FILEY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I MUST FIRST EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE TO THE crew at Dundurn Press: Kirk Howard, Beth Bruder, Tony Hawke, Barry Jowett, Andrea Pruss, Jennifer Scott, and Anna Synenko. Dundurn has published many excellent books on Toronto history over the years, and for that reason they were the only publisher I approached with the idea for this project.

It did not prove easy to gather first-hand accounts and photographs of the aftermath of Hurricane Hazel. Without the participation of those I interviewed and those who trusted me with their photographs I would never have been able to complete this book. Many welcomed me into their living rooms, met me at Tim Hortons, found time for a lengthy phone call, or suffered my flurries of e-mails, including Don Boyd, Al Brierley, Harry Bruce, Michael Campbell, Jack Carson, Nick Chometa, Jim Crawford, Byard Donnelly, Stan Elphick, Peter Ferguson, Mike Filey, Edith George, Ken Gibbs, David Imrie, Dave Iris, Hans Kotiessen, Helen Lee, Don Leslie, Hazel McCallion, Tudi Nuttley, Frank Orr, Wayne Plunkett, Roman Tarnovetsky, Mary Jane Thorne-Rees, John Thurston, Norma Vineham, Joyce Walker, and Neil Walker.

For generous donations of photographs or assistance in finding them I thank Don Haley, Rosemary Hasner, and Deanne Rodrigue of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority; Heather McKinnon of the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority; Jeanne Andrews of Environment Canada; Major Ira E. Barrow and Karl Larson of the Salvation Army Museum; Lloyd Cully; Bill Dixon; Martin Taylor; Steven Elphick; John Elphick; Richard Sargent; Beth Tokawa, formerly of the Toronto Port Authority; Thomas E. Allan, St. John Ambulance; Vinitha Pathmarajah, YWCA; Alan Walker, Toronto Reference Library; and Sean Smith of the York University Archives. I also thank the City of Toronto Archives, the Archives of Ontario, the National Archives of Canada, and the Toronto Police Museum for their contributions to this project.

I must single out Paula Elphick, Eva Ferguson, Marj Mossman, Mary Louise Ashbourne, Tina Hardt, and the other members of the Weston Historical Society for trusting me with their precious records and for allowing me a forum to meet their members, many of whom witnessed Hazels wrath in Weston and Etobicoke.

I thank Beth Crane for her technical advice and for otherwise seeing me through the storm.

For their continued support over the years, I thank my brother, Glen Gifford; Ken and Pat Wright; Michael Wright; Mark Wright; David Bolter, Nancie Im-Bolter, and wee Gwyneth Bolter; Geoff and Mary Bolter; Bill Harvey; John and Liza Harvey; Adrienne Leahey; Craig MacInnis; Steve Beattie; Ted Barris; Aaron Adel; Sarah Williams; Patrick Crean; Alyssa Stuart; Jim Allen; Howard Hewer; Barbara Jones; and my walking partners, Bella and Joe. I mustnt forget Steve Bevan, Dean Towers, Andrew Goodman, J. Bettis, and the others who for so long have met me at the confluence.