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Remembering Hurricane Hazel Storm took 81 lives, but transformed flood management practices in city
LETTERS Readers share their memories of Hurricane Hazel / 5
CYNTHIA REASON creason@insidetoronto.com This week marked the 60th anniversary of Hurricane Hazel – for many, a time to remember the 81 lives lost to the most destructive storm in Toronto’s history, to reflect on the lessons learned in its devastating wake, and to rejoice in the measures since taken to prevent such disastrous loss from occurring again. Madeleine McDowell, a wellknown Humber River heritage preservationist and co-vice chair of the Humber Watershed Alliance, was just 13 when Hazel struck in a fury of 110 kilometre/hour winds and torrential downpours on the
EVENTS Find out what’s happening in your neighbourhood / 17
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evening of Oct. 15, 1954. “I understood that there was flooding and that the winds were terrific and they were blowing down trees and causing waves, but we didn’t realize that people were being swept away and drowning,” said McDowell, who still resides in the Humbercrest Boulevard home that sheltered her teenaged self as Hazel raged that night, dumping more than 300 million tons of water and turning the nearby Humber River into an unstoppable force. “Approximately 20 billion gallons of water came sluicing down the Humber that night at a very rapid drop, which just pushed >>>CITY, page 15
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ART COME TO LIFE: A class of adults get down to the business of learning Chinese brush painting at Swansea Town Hall each week. Here, instructor Hera Cheng checks the progress of student JoAnn Lus.
After her breast cancer diagnosis in 1998, Joanna Chrystal said she was walking along Queen Street West during a particularly low point and came across one of the Willow Breast & Hereditary Cancer Support centres. Speaking to one of its staff members helped her feel a lot better, the
High Park resident said. Founded in 1994, the national, not-for-profit organization provides free-of-cost support, insight and information to anyone affected by breast cancer or hereditary cancer. For 19 of its 20 years, Willow has hosted an annual fundraiser ‘Eat to the Beat’ at Roy Thomson Hall. As part of the huge culinary >>>TOP, page 14
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