page_title: Regina Cyclone
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Regina Cyclone / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of June 30, 1912 cyclone in Regina, Saskatchewan
context_page_description: The Regina Cyclone, or Regina tornado of 1912, was a tornado that devastated the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, on Sunday, June 30, 1912. It remains the deadliest tornado in Canadian history with a total of 28 fatalities. 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.
context_section_description: The city forced those rendered homeless by the disaster to pay for the nightly use of cots set up in schools and city parks. It also required homeowners to pay for the removal of rubble from their homes. Debris was cleaned up 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. The CPR Roundhouse was stripped to the rafters, and boxcars were pulled from the tracks and hurtled into the air."
  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, and it would be forty years before the $4.5 million CAD private and public debt incurred to rebuild and repair was repaid.
  The only remaining "souvenir" of this event is different-coloured bricks on the north wall of Regina's Knox-Metropolitan United Church (the building of the pre-church union of 1925 Metropolitan Methodist), showing where the wall collapsed and was rebuilt. Knox Presbyterian, Metropolitan Methodist and First Baptist, all being brick, were quickly rebuilt. Knox and Metropolitan both became United Church in 1925, and merged their congregations in 1951 and became the Knox-Metropolitan Church. The Knox building was ultimately demolished.
caption: Knox Presbyterian church wrecked by cyclone, north side of 12th Avenue and Lorne Street, across from Victoria Park
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