On Sunday, June 30, 1912, a violent and deadly tornado devastated the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The tornado, also known as the Regina Cyclone or the Regina tornado of 1912, remains the deadliest tornado in Canadian history with a total of 28 fatalities and about 300 people injured. At about 4:50 p.m., green funnel clouds formed and touched down south of the city, tearing through the residential area between Wascana Lake and Victoria Avenue, and continuing through the downtown business district, rail yards, warehouse district, and northern residential area.

Meteorological synopsis

The tornado formed south of the city and continued for another north of the city before dissipating. It was approximately wide. The tornado's wind velocity has been estimated at , making it the equivalent of a high-end F4 on the Fujita Scale. The tornado also displayed a multiple vortex structure throughout the city's residential areas, leaving individual houses untouched next to homes that were completely flattened.

Occurrence

left|thumb|Damage to the YMCA on 12th Avenue immediately north of Victoria Park

The tornado hit Regina at approximately 5:00 p.m. on June 30, 1912. The tornado formed 18 km south of the city and was roughly 150 metres wide by the time it reached Regina. The worst damage was in the residential area north of Wascana Lake and the central business district. Many buildings, both brick and wood, were entirely destroyed. "The new Central Library building was opened May 11, 1912, and just six weeks later, the new library was among the many buildings that suffered damage."

right|thumb|Victoria Avenue and Smith Street immediately west of Metropolitan Methodist Church, across Smith Street from the current City Hall

"In just twenty minutes it completely leveled a number of houses, and caused other houses to explode as the pressure inside the structures rose when the tornado passed overhead." The affluent residential area to the south was substantially diminished, but the tornado left houses untouched here and there immediately adjacent to houses which were flattened. "[I]n the warehouse district, it destroyed many of the storage buildings. The CPR Roundhouse was stripped to the rafters, and boxcars were pulled from the tracks and hurtled into the air."

Such damage was especially appalling to see as well as experience since Regina had been built on an entirely featureless plain, lacking any trees or vegetation other than natural wild prairie grass and without any hills or rivers apart from the tiny spring runoff Wascana Creek, which only flowed in early spring.

"The cyclone claimed twenty-eight lives and was the worst in Canadian history in terms of deaths. It also rendered 2,500 persons temporarily homeless, and caused over $1,200,000 in property damage. It took the city two years to repair the damage and ten years to pay off its storm debt." Debris was cleaned up rather quickly. "The storm damaged the Metropolitan Methodist Church, [the Knox Presbyterian Church, the First Methodist,] the library, the YWCA [and YMCA], and numerous other downtown buildings; in the warehouse district, it destroyed many of the storage buildings.

right|thumb|Regina houses damaged by the Regina Cyclone

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, out of a population of about 30,213 (in 1911). Around 500 buildings were destroyed or damaged. Property damage was quantified at $1.2 million CAD,

The only remaining "souvenir" of this event is different-coloured bricks on the north wall of Regina's Knox-Metropolitan United Church (the former Metropolitan Methodist church). The bricks show where the wall was rebuilt after its tornado-caused collapse. Knox Presbyterian, Metropolitan Methodist and First Baptist, all being brick, were rebuilt after the tornado. Knox and Metropolitan both became United Church in 1925, and merged their congregations in 1951 to become the Knox-Metropolitan Church, meeting in the old Metropolitan Church. The Knox building was ultimately demolished.

Boris Karloff, Jeanne Russell, Henrietta Crosman, and the Albini-Avolos are all characters in BD Miller's musical drama, "Swept Off Our Feet: Boris Karloff and the Regina Cyclone", which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the disaster and premiered as a July 2012 production of Regina Summer Stage. Karloff, several years before launching his film career, was in Regina at the time of the disaster performing with a travelling theatrical troupe and assisted in search and rescue efforts, an experience he would recount during a 1960s appearance on the CBC series Front Page Challenge.

The novel Euphoria by Connie Gault won the 2009 Saskatchewan Book Award for Fiction and prominently features the Regina Cyclone.

A chapter of Frank Rasky's book Great Canadian Disasters (1961) is devoted to this tragedy.

See also

  • List of Canadian tornadoes and tornado outbreaks (before 2001)

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File:Winnipeg Elevator after the cyclone.jpg|Winnipeg Elevator after the tornado

File:Warehouse district after the cyclone.jpg|Warehouse district after the tornado

File:Side view of Princess Theatre after cyclone.jpg|Side view of Princess Theatre after tornado

File:Regina Tornado June 30, 1912.jpg|Regina Tornado June 30, 1912

File:Regina downtown after cyclone.jpg|Regina downtown after tornado

File:People in front of damaged building.jpg|People in front of damaged building

File:Metropolitan Presbyterian Church after the cyclone.jpg|Metropolitan Methodist Church after the tornado

File:Damage to Metropolitan Methodist Church.jpg|Damage to Metropolitan Methodist Church

File:North end of Regina after cyclone.jpg|North end of Regina after tornado

File:Downtown stores damaged by cyclone.jpg|Downtown stores damaged by tornado

File:Destroyed Winnipeg Elevator Company buildings.jpg|Destroyed Winnipeg Elevator Company buildings

File:Damaged office building after cyclone.jpg|Damaged office building after tornado

File:Damaged homes on Smith Street.jpg|Damaged homes on Smith Street

File:Damage to the YWCA by cyclone.jpg|Damage to the YWCA immediately north of Metropolitan Methodist Church on Lorne Street

File:Damage to buildings after the cyclone.jpg|Damage to buildings after the tornado

File:Damage to businesses after the cyclone.jpg|Damage to businesses after the tornado

File:Damage to buildings on Lorne St. after cyclone.jpg|Damage to buildings on Lorne St.

File:Damage caused by the cyclone.jpg|Damage caused by the tornado

File:After the cyclone, Regina City, June 30th, 1912, south part of the city.jpg|Two uniformed men stand on a sidewalk in front of a row of damaged houses.

</gallery>

References

Further reading