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.