A Tale of Two Hurricanes: 1962 Vancouver/2014 Edmonton

A Tale of Two Hurricanes: 1962 Vancouver/2014 Edmonton

Postby jon » Wed Jan 15, 2014 7:18 pm

Today, just after 8:00 a.m., marked the highest wind speed in Edmonton's recorded history: 120 km/hr., which translates to the same 75 mph many of us experienced in October 1962 as Hurricane Frieda hit Vancouver. Leaving the debate aside as to whether either of these were actually hurricanes, it gives me an opportunity to ask what you remember of Hurricane Frieda. Or, alternatively, what is the highest wind speeds you have lived through?

For me, 1962 taught me not to take for granted the availability of electrical power. Our house in East Burnaby went almost three full days without power, while friends had power restored a few hours after the storm hit as close as 5 blocks away.

No power meant no heating -- no fan to blow the air from the furnace throughout the house -- no lights, and minimizing the times the fridge door was opened or all the food would spoil. A year or two later, I was visiting Port Angeles when a power failure hit, and I suddenly realized how lucky I'd been to live in Vancouver during the hurricane as our Water Supply was gravity fed from the mountains. Port Angeles had no water when they had no power. Without warning, there was no chance to fill the bath tub as a personal reservoir.

1962's storm also elevated CKNW's status as a radio station when they were the only Vancouver area station on the air until power was restored to other stations' facilities.

Today, the power failures were not widespread in Edmonton, thanks to the decision decades ago to switch to underground power service. The only major outage was the subway (LRT), at the South end of the above ground service. The crossing arms all broke around 7:00 a.m., making vehicle collisions almost inevitable, so that part of the system was shut down until they could all be replaced in mid-afternoon. This after one of the University subway tunnels flooded yesterday during afternoon rush hour, forcing subway cars to share one track.

1962 also reminds me how a major (widespread and lengthy) power failure would cripple Edmonton. I don't know anyone with the kind of used stove my parents had bought when they moved into our house in 1951: as well as the oven and four electric burners, it also had an area for burning rubbish, where you could use the heat to cook food on top. That allowed us to eat hot meals during those three days. And heat our own water for washing. It also allowed us to keep warm, by restricting our activities to the kitchen. Then, as now, a fireplace is not much good for heating a house, because you have to leave the flue open all night, which brings in a lot of cold air. Or stay up all night keeping the fire alive.
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Re: A Tale of Two Hurricanes: 1962 Vancouver/2014 Edmonton

Postby Mike Cleaver » Thu Jan 16, 2014 1:37 pm

Hurricane Hazel when it hit Kingston and Toronto in the early '50s.
We were living in a row house complex at the Royal Military College in Kingston where my father was teaching.
A huge tree crashed through the roof of my brother's bedroom, narrowly missing his bed and leaving a huge hole in the ceiling.
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54 years experience at some of Canada's Premier Broadcasting Stations
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Re: A Tale of Two Hurricanes: 1962 Vancouver/2014 Edmonton

Postby Firedog » Thu Jan 16, 2014 2:37 pm

I was 15 when Hurricane Frieda blew into the lower mainland. Though our house lost power and a few shingles from the roof we held up pretty well.

With a wood fired furnace in the basement and a gas stove in the kitchen, we were warm and well fed.

The major reason I remember Hurricane Frieda is that she was responsible for our house having hardwood flooring installed on the main floor. This was due to the damage done to the Woodwards Department Store show windows. With a number of the show windows blown in, the hardwood flooring in the show windows was soaked by the rain.

Woodwards, in an effort to have the repairs done quickly, removed all the water damaged hardwood flooring. My father was able to acquire all the flooring that was removed. The whole family carried the wet flooring into the basement, removed all the nails, sorted good from bad and stacked it carefully to dry.

Long story short, the hardwood was installed, sanded and a new finish applied. The flooring was still in the house when it was sold and demolished in 2009. Thanks Frieda.
We are running in, when everybody else is running out.
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