Regina Cyclone
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| Regina Cyclone | |
| Date of tornado: | June 30, 1912 |
| Time: | 4:45 p.m. CDT (2245 UTC) |
| Rating of tornado: | F4 tornado |
| Damages: | $98,344,423 (2005 CAD)[1] $84,785,759 (2005 USD) [2] $4,200,000 (1912 USD) [3] |
| Fatalities: | 28 |
| Area affected: | Regina, Saskatchewan and surrounding area |
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The Regina Cyclone is the popular name for a powerful and deadly tornado that devastated the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada on June 30, 1912. It was around 4:45 p.m. when two funnel clouds formed to the south of city and tore a path of destruction through the residential area between Wascana Lake and Victoria Avenue and the downtown business district. It remains the deadliest tornado in Canadian history.
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[edit] Damage
Damage from the tornado is estimated to be F4 on the Fujita scale. The tornado killed 28 people, injured hundreds, and left 2,500 people homeless. Around 500 buildings were destroyed or damaged; property damage was quantified at $4.2 million and it would be forty years (1952) before the private and public debt incurred to rebuild and repair was repaid.
The tornado started 18 kilometres (11 mi) south of the city and continued for another 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) north before dissipating. It was 12 blocks long and 3 blocks wide. The worst damage was in the central business district, with many buildings entirely destroyed; the affluent residential area to the south was substantially decimated, but the tornado left houses untouched here and there immediately adjacent to houses which were flattened.
Debris was cleaned up quickly and the only remaining "souvenir" of this event are different-coloured bricks on the north wall of Regina's Knox-Metropolitan United Church, showing where the wall collapsed and was rebuilt.
| Deadliest tornadoes in Canadian history Death counts before 1900 may be approximate |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Tornado | Date | Deaths |
| 1 | "Regina Cyclone" | June 30, 1912 | ≥28 |
| 2 | Edmonton Tornado | July 31, 1987 | 27 |
| 3 | Windsor-Tecumseh, Ontario tornado | June 17, 1946 | 17 |
| 4 | Pine Lake Tornado | July 14, 2000 | 12 |
| 5 | Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec | August 16, 1888 | 9 |
| Windsor, Ontario tornado | April 3, 1974 | 9 | |
| 7 | Barrie, Ontario tornado | May 31, 1985 | 8 |
| 8 | Sudbury, Ontario tornado | August 20, 1970 | 6 |
| Sainte-Rose, Quebec tornado | June 8, 1953 | 6 | |
| 10 | Bouctouche, New Brunswick tornado | August 6, 1879 | 5 |
| Portage la Prairie, Manitoba tornado | May 11, 1953 | 5 | |
| Source: Environment Canada | |||
[edit] Trivia
- British actor William Henry Pratt was appearing in a play in Regina at the time of the storm. In the aftermath, he volunteered as a rescue worker. Years later, he would move to Hollywood and change his name to Boris Karloff. In the 1960s, Karloff appeared on the talk-cum-game show Front Page Challenge where he was featured not because of his notoriety in horror films, but because of his involvement in the Regina Cyclone of 1912.
