HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Regional Sections > Canada


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
  #1  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 1:27 PM
SignalHillHiker's Avatar
SignalHillHiker SignalHillHiker is online now
I ♣ Baby Seals
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Sin Jaaawnz, Newf'nland
Posts: 34,659
Question What was the biggest disaster in your city/province?

I've been watching documentaries about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina over the past few days - fascinated by that culture, the funeral processions and the like... and I'm curious what was the greatest natural disaster in your city and province? From Hurricane Juan to the Quebec ice storm... what was it?
__________________
Note to self: "The plural of anecdote is not evidence."
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #2  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 1:33 PM
manny_santos's Avatar
manny_santos manny_santos is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: New Westminster
Posts: 5,002
Ontario has a few candidates:

- Hurricane Hazel (1954) - 81 deaths, mostly in Toronto area but also as far east as Ottawa
- Sudbury tornado (1970) - 6 deaths
- Barrie tornado outbreak (1985) - 12 deaths in Barrie and Grand Valley
- Ice storm (1998) - 28 deaths in Ontario and Quebec
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #3  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 1:35 PM
SignalHillHiker's Avatar
SignalHillHiker SignalHillHiker is online now
I ♣ Baby Seals
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Sin Jaaawnz, Newf'nland
Posts: 34,659
For St. John's, it would be definitely be one of the fires. The main two were the Great First of 1846, which destroyed most of the city; the Great Fire of 1892, which destroyed much of what was by that time a far larger and more prosperous city, so the loss was greater and it also claimed the lives of four women.

The 1892 fire received worldwide coverage, and quotes published in the newspapers included the poetic line:

Quote:
"Of the whole easterly section, scarcely a building remained. Of the costly and imposing structures and public buildings which were the pride and glory of the people, scarcely a vestige remained; and St. John's lay in the morning as a city despoiled of her beauty, her choicest ornaments, presenting a picture of utter desolation and woe."

Great Fire of 1892, Memorial University Archives

For Newfoundland as a whole, the deadliest natural disaster was definitely the Burin tsunami. It killed 29 people, and the death toll would have been considerably higher except a visiting professional knew what it meant when the waters suddenly receded and warned residents of the larger towns to seek higher ground. It's still the deadliest earthquake-related event in modern Canadian history (ones on the west coast definitely killed hundreds more prior to the arrival of Europeans).

The costliest was certainly Hurricane Igor, which claimed one life.

In the realm of accidental and warfare-related disasters, the sinking of the S.S. Caribou by Nazi U-boats, the bombing of Bell Island by U-boats, and especially the Knights of Columbus Hostel Fire were all far deadlier. The latter happened to take place in a dance hall where a concert was being broadcast live over the radio. Residents of the city heard the young men and women dying.

Industrial disasters I'd count the Ocean Ranger in there, as well as all the sealing-related tragedies. They weren't as deadly as the Knights of Columbus fire, but close.
__________________
Note to self: "The plural of anecdote is not evidence."
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #4  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 1:42 PM
SignalHillHiker's Avatar
SignalHillHiker SignalHillHiker is online now
I ♣ Baby Seals
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Sin Jaaawnz, Newf'nland
Posts: 34,659
Quote:
Originally Posted by manny_santos View Post
Ontario has a few candidates:

- Hurricane Hazel (1954)
- Sudbury tornado (1970)
- Barrie tornado (1985)
- Ice storm (1998)
I knew Hazel and the ice storm, but not the tornadoes. Reading the Wikipedia pages now. Scary stuff!

Quote:
Six people died and 200 were injured in the tornado, which caused an estimated $17 million ($103 million in 2015 dollars)[8] in damage,[7] including to Inco's copper smelter in Copper Cliff. A pipeline carrying iron-nickel concentrate to the plant collapsed onto a train track below, in turn causing a derailment when a train hit the collapsed pipe, but the incident resulted in only minor injuries.[9] The Inco Superstack, then under construction, swayed in the storm but was not heavily damaged.[3] Six workers were on the construction platform at the time; although all six survived, they quit their jobs the next day.[10]
__________________
Note to self: "The plural of anecdote is not evidence."
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #5  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 1:50 PM
speedog's Avatar
speedog speedog is offline
Moran supreme
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,579
Most Calgarians would probably say the 2013 flood but the 1886 fire was much more drastic, so much so that it resulted in a bylaw being passed that all large downtown buildings were to be built with sandstone.

Ninja edit: The 1886 fire was not a natural disaster so I would suspect the 2013 flood probably stands as Calgary's largest natural disaster.
__________________
Just a wee bit below average prairie boy in Canada's third largest city and fourth largest CMA
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #6  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 2:57 PM
giallo's Avatar
giallo giallo is offline
be nice to the crackheads
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 11,458
For BC:

The NDP in the 90s was pretty bad.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #7  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 3:09 PM
Black Star's Avatar
Black Star Black Star is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Edmonton
Posts: 7,159
The Oilers from 1995 to 2014/15.
__________________
Beverly to 96 St then all the way down to Riverdale.
Ol'Skool Classic Funk, Disco, and Rock.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #8  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 3:19 PM
whatnext whatnext is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 22,112
Quote:
Originally Posted by giallo View Post
For BC:

The NDP in the 90s was pretty bad.
Funny, I was just going to say Christy Clarke!

I guess Vancouver has been pretty lucky so far (touch wood). The great fire of 1886 would probably be up there, but loss of life was minimal.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #9  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 3:32 PM
MonctonRad's Avatar
MonctonRad MonctonRad is online now
Wildcats Rule!!
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Moncton NB
Posts: 34,453
For Moncton, the Saxby Gale of 1869 is pretty famous. It was unquestionably a strong hurricane, but this was before the time of accurate weather forecasting and was not characterized as such. It was likely at least a Cat 3 storm. The original Gunningsville Bridge to Riverview was taken out by the storm. This quote below gives an indication of other damage.

Quote:
At Moncton, too, the effects of the storm were long felt. Houses all along the lower streets were flooded when the water swept up Main Street to the point where the City Hall now stands. In Bore Park today stands a shaft set up to show the extraordinary high water mark reached by the Saxby Tide, more than two meters higher than the previous record.

In the shipyards at Lewisville a schooner was caught up in the might of wind and waves and left stranded high and dry in the midst of an orchard. At Hopewell Hill and at Shediac good-sized vessels were also thrown far up on land.

The damage from wind and water, in Albert County alone, was estimated to reach the quarter-million mark. Orchard lands were swept by the gale as by rue. Hay meadows were flooded with great losses in crops. Miles of dyke, some of which had served for generations, were broken away. Roads were buried beneath debris, and in many cases damaged beyond repair.
Otherwise, the great blizzard of 1992 is pretty memorable. In a two day time period, 162 cm of snow fell leading the city to be paralyzed for about a week. The only thing that saved us was the fact that there was no snow on the ground when the storm started. If there had already been a couple of feet on the ground, there would have been nowhere to pile the snow.........
__________________
Go 'Cats Go
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #10  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 3:34 PM
SkahHigh's Avatar
SkahHigh SkahHigh is offline
More transit please
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Montreal
Posts: 3,794
The 1998 ice storm was pretty bad...


https://museecanadiendelanature.file...m001.jpg?w=640
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #11  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 3:36 PM
giallo's Avatar
giallo giallo is offline
be nice to the crackheads
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 11,458
Quote:
Originally Posted by whatnext View Post
Funny, I was just going to say Christy Clarke!

I guess Vancouver has been pretty lucky so far (touch wood). The great fire of 1886 would probably be up there, but loss of life was minimal.
She's terrible too. Actually, BC politics, in general, is a disaster.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #12  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 3:39 PM
bulliver's Avatar
bulliver bulliver is offline
So very tired...
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Penticton
Posts: 3,757
Based on monetary value of damage, the worst in Alberta was the 2013 Calgary/Southern Alberta floods:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Alberta_floods

By death toll, it was the 1903 Frank slide, which killed between 80-90 people, basically burying a small town under rock:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide

Technically, the Frank Slide could be disqualified, because Alberta was not yet a province at the time, and thus the slide occurred in the NWT. In that case, the worst death toll was the 1987 Edmonton Tornado which claimed 27 lives:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_tornado
__________________
Support the mob or mysteriously disappear...
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #13  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 3:47 PM
Cyro's Avatar
Cyro Cyro is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 5,197
I apologize but I couldn't resist, interesting thread though.

Our own Winnipeg Blue Bombers...for as long as I can remember...
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #14  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 4:36 PM
Medicineline's Avatar
Medicineline Medicineline is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 108
On June 19 1914 an explosion and fire killed 189 of the 235 men that entered the Hillcrest mine in Alberta's Crowsnest Pass.
__________________
No matter who you vote for, the government always gets in.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #15  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 4:41 PM
mattpa's Avatar
mattpa mattpa is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Steinbach
Posts: 145
The 1950 1997 flood, And also the NDP Government when selinger came into power
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #16  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 4:57 PM
Architype's Avatar
Architype Architype is offline
♒︎ Empirically Canadian
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: 🍁 Canada
Posts: 11,934
BC had the Vancouver Second Narrows Bridge collapse in 1958, 19 people died; and the 1910 Rogers pass avalanche where 62 people died. I can't think of anything else at the moment, except the Vancouver fire of 1886 which claimed dozens of lives.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #17  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 5:02 PM
worldwide's Avatar
worldwide worldwide is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Vancouver - Ktown
Posts: 704
The Hope Slide^^

the ironworkers bridge collapse was pretty serious business too
__________________
Hieroglyphics yeah, to the kick and the snare like that, there, yeah, we keep it raw rare
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #18  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 5:39 PM
SkydivePilot SkydivePilot is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: REGINA
Posts: 2,295
For Regina: It was the 1912 cyclone. An F4 resulting in 28 deaths and 2500 homeless.

For Saskatchewan: Tommy Douglas.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #19  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 6:27 PM
digitboy's Avatar
digitboy digitboy is offline
digital b0y
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Rimouski
Posts: 3,598
I would say Lac Megantic train explosion in July 6, 2013 is one of the worst tragedy we had in recent years. A true disaster on all aspects, something that we will remember for decades to come.

47 deads. Downtown completely destroyed. extreme pollution, etc. A very sad day for Quebec and Canada.
__________________
immobilism :

a political policy characterized by inertia and antipathy to change
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #20  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2015, 6:31 PM
st7860 st7860 is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,299
Reply With Quote
     
     
This discussion thread continues

Use the page links to the lower-right to go to the next page for additional posts
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Regional Sections > Canada
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 10:07 AM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.