Just over 55 years ago, in October 1954, meteorologists began tracking a massive tropical storm moving west towards the Caribbean island of Grenada. On October 12th it made landfall on Haiti and the Dominican Republic and is estimated to have taken over 1000 lives. By the time that Hurricane Hazel (as it was designated) cleared Haiti its wind speed had dropped to a mere 40mph and meteorologists confidently expected it to die. Sadly they were wrong. An unusually hot October had recharged the storm and it headed for North America growing to a Category 4 hurricane.
Whenever hurricanes land on the eastern seaboard of the States, they almost always take the same route; the coastal areas between South Carolina and New England. Hurricane Hazel was no exception. Having caused untold destruction on its way north, it met the Allegheny Mountains, one of the highest ridges in the Appalachian chain. Here, meteorologists again expected it to die. Wrong!
Two other weather systems helped Hazel to surmount the Alleghenies and it moved ever northward to wards the Great Lakes where it was demoted from 'hurricane' to 'severe storm'.
It passed over Toronto where it rained heavily throughout the day. Some basements were flooded and some roof tiles lost but little attention was paid to the storm. What the inhabitiants of Toronto didn't know was that Hazel had dumped an estimated 300,000,000 tons of water to the north of the city. The rain landed on already saturated fields and, unable to be absorbed, began rolling towards Toronto.
Toronto is a city built on river ravines, many of which were inhabited. That night a wall of water descended these ravines. Fortunately only some 80 people died.
As a result of this hurricane some 55 years ago, Hurricane Hazel's high water lines are now used as a benchmark for planning applications. Land below the benchmarks is designated as parkland and no one is allowed to build houses or live there.
What a shame that our planners don't use the same criteria when allowing building on flood plains. Had they done so, it's possible that what happened in Workington might just have been avoided.
