Beats
Regina Tornado/Cyclone
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The Path of the Tornado
Tornadoes evoke some of the strongest images ever imaginable in our minds. It is common knowledge that a tornado observed and not moving to the right or to the left relative to trees or power poles in the distance may be moving in the direction of the observer.On June 30th, 1912 around 5:00pm, some Regina residents saw the tornado moving - others found out about it when it was upon them. Credible historical accounts of the tornado are few and far between, although there are many photographs depicting its aftermath. Some have argued that a couple of funnel clouds came together southeast of Regina on that fateful day. Most agree that it then started heading northward toward the city. It is likely we will never know with certainty how this catastrophic event took shape.What we know with a reasonable amount of confidence s that the tornado rated as an F4 on the Fujita scale, with winds between 330 and 416 kilometers per hour. With this velocity, well-constructed houses can be leveled; structures with weak foundations can be blown off some distance; cars can be thrown and large missiles or debris can be generated. The 1912 Regina tornado was the most severe tornado so far known in Canada. It killed 28 people, injured hundreds and demolished much of the downtown area, leaving 2,400 people homeless.Along its path, the brand new Legislative building stood to the west. The tornado blew the windows out of the east wing before it swooped over Wascana Lake. This is where its trajectory somewhat stabilizes, as if to take better aim and wreak havoc where it would hurt most.While over the lake, the tornado had veered slightly toward the west, wedging itself in pretty much a steady groove northward along Smith and Lorne streets, heading for the more densely built environment of the downtown area.Bear in mind that the tornado hit on a hot long weekend Sunday afternoon. It was a day off. People had likely been relaxing at the lake. There are indeed reports of boaters witnessing the tornado moving over water to the north shore. Within seconds, the force of the wind crushed the Regina Boating Club facility. The tornado crept its way along Lorne and Smith streets, tearing house after house. Simply put, much of the damage was caused by building materials lifted by the winds. Entire house floors were literally torn off the ground and in some cases, moved across the street.In his book Regina's Terrible Tornado, Frank W. Anderson writes:"Probably no one will ever know how long the reign of terror hung over the prairie oasis of Regina. Some estimates say it was all over in 30 seconds. More probably, the raging twister took as long as four or even five minutes to traverse the city. Preceded by a very light rain, the main body of the storm was followed by a deluge of water - some of it sucked up from Wascana and dumped upon the nearest buildings, as if from a giant pail. With the cessation of the torrential downpour, people began to crawl from the ruins of their homes, or to venture from the safety of buildings untouched by the tornado, and to form rescue parties."Even if Anderson's account is somewhat fictionalized, it does provide a vivid interpretation of events, as they might have unfolded. It remains unparalleled in the impressions it leaves readers with to this day:"There was one solid block of residences between Lorne and Smith Streets and bounded by 13th and 14th Avenues which was leveled. Caught squarely in the heart of the tornado, many of them were battered down by the rotary force of the winds. Others literally blew themselves up as the low-pressure area of the tornado passed over them, The [sic] air remaining inside the house created an outward pressure and when the core of the storm reached them, creating almost a vacuum, this inside pressure burst the wall, thrust up the ceiling and shredded doors and windows."Most of the death recorded as a result of the tornado occurred within a zone situated between 15th Avenue and South Railway, along a south to north axis.As it reached the Canadian Pacific Railway yards and mainline, the tornado blew out the bricks of the roundhouse, leaving only the massive wood frame structure behind, a mere skeleton of the monumental locomotive maintenance facility it had been only a few minutes before. North of the tracks, in what is now called the Old Warehouse District also suffered the blasting force of the tornado. But as the tornado moved north, its path widened. Yet, the voracious tempest seemed to target its victims more selectively. The Ackerman Building on Dewdney Avenue suffered significant damage. It was the most imposing warehousing structure of its days in the district. Buildings located as far east as Scarth Street were damaged. Fire Hall no. 2 lost part of its exterior wall, but would still serve as a temporary relief station for area residents in the following days.Thus, the tornado exited the city shrouded in even more mystery than that with which it had entered Regina. Text by Claude-Jean Harel -
The Regina Tornado Brand
When one hears the phrase "Regina Tornado" there is no confusion - this can only mean the devastating tornado that struck Regina on June 30th, 1912. Also referred to as the cyclone (although the storm has since been technically classified as a tornado), this event remains a popular point of interest to local citizens and people all over the country. The seed of the Regina tornado brand began to take root on day one, with photographers rushing out to document the scenes of terrible destruction left in the storm's wake. Many of the professional and panoramic shots of the damage were taken by Leader newspaper photographer E.C. Rossie. Because cameras were not owned by many in 1912, Rossie's images have become icons of the tornado brand, and have been reprinted many times in many forms. The spectacle of a ruined city lured spectators in from surrounding areas not just to help clean up, but to look too. Images of the tornado's aftermath soon found their way into newspapers, postcards and souvenir pamphlets. These materials were circulated within the city and spread beyond Regina's borders as they were sent to friends and relatives all over the world.While many tornado-related items and images were intended to satisfy curiosity and act as a legacy to remember the event, some people took advantage of the situation to drum up business. Some businesses simply capitalized on the needs generated by the tornado, such as a notice concerning limited supplies of plate glass, which was in high demand after the storm. Others took advantage of the fear provoked by the tornado, such as the Dominion Trust Company, Ltd. On July 2nd, a mere two days after the tornado, the Morning Leader contained an ad for Tornado Insurance: "50c per $100 for Three Years. Too Cheap to Be Without Protection." Perhaps the most lucrative business enterprise was tornado postcards. These showed various views of the damage caused by the tornado, and were also a way for the people of Regina to add their own messages and impressions of the event.This postcard, showing a view of the damage caused on South Railway, reads:"Dear Ted,This is only a little patch of damage done by Cyclone, show you complete set of views when you come for Exhibition...(Yours, Elsie)"As time passed, the Regina Cyclone has become a landmark in the city's historical landscape. The event has served to inspire many school projects and papers, essays and books, not to mention a stage play and a baseball team!Now even nearly 100 years since “the” tornado struck Regina, it remains one of the most fascinating events in our city's history. Text by Jaymie Koroluk -
Tornado in the Midst of Boosterism
At the time of the tornado many Western Canadian settlements competed with one another for investment dollars and new inhabitants. This occurred through sophisticated advertisement campaigns in eastern parts of the country and elsewhere in the world. Cities such as Regina were touted as places destined for greatness, where countless opportunities waited to be seized - where the future was as bright as the imagination could bring dreams to life. The civic leaders who promoted the towns and cities of the early 20th century Canadian West were called boosters. Together, the mayors, developers and other business advocates who touted their respective urban centre as the Dominion of Canada's next economic focus point, took part in a movement widely known as Boosterism. Boosterism has been described as an epidemic at the time, as elected officials and businessmen often made extravagant predictions in the hope of attracting new residents and inflating real estate prices. Developers often produced their own maps of the city. Using the Post Office as the chief landmark point, these maps allowed prospective residents to get a sense of the lay of the land. Concentric circles at one-mile intervals from the Post Office conveniently provided a frame of reference between commercial and residential districts. Bear in mind that most people at the time were still traveling by foot to get around the city. The maps made the city attractive in subtle ways. For instance, they were not drawn exactly to scale. Streets were wider than reality, giving the impression of ample space - of a certain distinctive character having been imparted to urban landscape design. One such map of Regina in 1912 already shows where the Albert Park neighbourhood would be developed. Albert Park was not annexed to the city until the 1960s. By 1912, Regina was not only booming in terms of its image, it was really moving. It had is own municipally owned street railway; arteries were lined with electric streetlights - there was indeed a power plant. There were extensive waterworks and a drinking water supply apparently large enough for a population of 100,000. New works were already under construction that would increase the supply to 10 million gallons daily, which would be sufficient for a population of 150,000, the map information claims. A brand new $200,000 Parliament building had just been completed. A few years earlier, a $200,000 City Hall and a $300,000 Post Office had also been built downtown. There were 250 wholesale and manufacturing organizations employing 1,200 commercial travelers in Regina, shipping in 1911 goods to the value of $40,000,000, according to the l912 map of Regina insert. Criss-crossing he city were 21 lines of railway operating or under construction. There were 46,000 people living in Regina on October 1st, 1912, according to the map information. This was 16,000 more than in 1911 and 40,000 more than in 1906.Twelve chartered banks operated in the city. There was $30,000 worth of agricultural implements shipped from Regina in 1912. Promoters claimed it was the largest amount of any point in the world. They also claimed the number of automobiles per thousand people in Regina was the highest of any city in Canada - obviously a true measure of urban prosperity. It may have well been this kind of statistical display that may have helped His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught, the Duchess and their daughter Princess Patricia to come see for themselves what all the fuss was about in Regina. They came to the Queen City in October of 1912, for the inauguration of Saskatchewan's Legislative Building. The Duke of Connaught was the third eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The Duke was then Governor General of Canada. He and his escort attended a number of official events, where citizens eager to confirm their wisdom in believing in the Regina promise celebrated the Royal presence with their own participation and support. By the fall, the post-tornado cleanup was presumably completed. The Royal Procession in honour of the official visit of the Governor General had been strategically planned to avoid the damaged portions of downtown Regina. His Royal Highness would only catch a distant glimpse of the destruction across Victoria Park, his view more appropriately directed toward the glorious architecture of buildings along Scarth Street and South Railway. Text by Claude-Jean Harel -
Tornado's impact on Built and Physical Environments
From the study of fire insurance plans and photographic evidence, one can acquire a clearer picture of how the built environment of the city was affected by the tornado. To help readers put things into perspective, we should share with them a sense of what the city was made of at the time. As any amateur historian who has looked at early photographs of Regina would know, the earliest buildings of 1883 were modest wooden structures, generally one or two storeys in height, interspersed with tents of all sizes. The first “movie theatre” in Regina was a tent – as was the first general store. Bear in mind that all building materials had to be brought in by train as freight. As the 20th century rolled in, more sophisticated wooden structures started to appear, as well as taller brick and stone buildings. The former material sometimes was used as veneer over a wooden frame, and sometimes as structural bricks. But it is on wood structures that we will focus on for now. If one follows the general path of the tornado from south to north, the first structures that were hit were mostly made of wood. They were wood-framed and wood-clad in most cases.Picture winds of hundreds of kilometers an hour hitting structures held together by masses of nails. Nails are an effective way to assemble dwellings when they are not subjected to an excessive amount of vibrations. This is why Inuit wood sleighs or kamotiks pulled over hard-packed snow and ice, over hundreds of kilometers, carrying food and people, are generally assembled today with nylon rope. The rope ensures the structural integrity of the sleigh by allowing vibrations between parts to take place. If there is a structural risk, it is the risk of the rope wearing out. When the rope becomes loose, it is simply tightened. Nails, on the other hand, allow pieces to be pulled apart. This is why today’s modern nails are sometimes coated in resin or spiraled, so they remain in place more effectively. Constant wind would inexorably weaken the bind that keeps clapboard and frames together, until the pieces would come apart. Wood is also a loftier material than brick or stone – not only because it is a less dense and heavy material, but because there is enough surface area to a wood board for any kind of wind to create a lift force. Thus planks have the potential to become the type of elongated missile that achieves great velocity in strong winds. It then follows that photographic evidence suggests there were great concentrations of wooden debris after the tornado in the streets and yards of Regina. Our first reaction is to try to imagine just how terribly dangerous it must have been for a human being to be close to weak walls or unsheltered areas at the tornado’s passage. Risk of injury was great and independent reports do confirm that there were many. The streets of Regina being mostly 66 feet wide – 99 feet for larger arteries – there was ample room for the debris to spread over their surface. Larger “chunks”, like an attic, a dormer or even perhaps an airborne roof, tended to wedge themselves next to other houses or buildings. In the back lanes, there might have been considerably more clutter, as outhouses, sheds and stables are relatively flimsier structures. It seems there are fewer available photographs with perspectives from back lanes that were either taken or have survived as evidence for us to analyze. This suggests the lanes were less accessible – perhaps muddier as a result of the downpour of rain, but perhaps also because of the damage there as well. Add this to the possibility that some of the livestock kept within city limits at the time might have remained in the outbuildings during the tornado. There likely were many casualties among horses, cows and chickens – the back alleys were not a nice place to go for a post tornado stroll. As the tornado moved to downtown, the C.P.R. yards and the warehouse district, it encountered more multi-storey buildings made of brick, stone and concrete. There too, debris was strewn across the landscape and rubble remained. Neither brick nor stone buildings were spared. Here is what Frank W. Anderson writes about the destruction of the Telephone Exchange Building. According to him, eight operators were on duty that afternoon, as well as a service man and a janitor:“The tornado wreaked terrible damage on the building, tearing the roof loose and caving in the south wall. The massive switchboard, estimated to weigh some 15 tons, crashed through the floor and into the basement, carrying three operators down with it still in their chairs and with their headphones still over their ears. The rest of the girls were trapped in the basement under the collapsed roof and walls, but the three operators who came down with the switchboard managed to work their way out through a basement window with the help of the janitor. They made their way to the nearby Leader newspaper office.”He goes on:”At first, their story was treated with jocular good humour and they were kidded about ‘trying to get their names in the paper’, but when the staff realized that the girls were serious they formed a rescue party and hurried to the telephone building. It was only then that they began to realize the enormous force of the storm.”It is interesting to note that even considering how close to the tornado they were, some people were unaware that a deadly tornado had hit. Text by Claude-Jean Harel
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