page_title: Hurricane Hazel
section_title: Canada
hierarchical_section_title: Hurricane Hazel / Impact / Canada
caption_attribution_description: Lawrence Avenue crossing the Humber River, connecting Weston Road and Scarlett Road. The water level had been completely over the bridge as a result of Hurricane Hazel. By the time this picture was taken, the main river was in its course, but was flowing very fast, so that it was banked up against the curve of the bluff, and there was a standing wave head-high above the level of the bank on this side of the river.
context_page_description: Hurricane Hazel was the deadliest, costliest, and most intense hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm killed at least 469 people in Haiti before striking the United States near the border between North and South Carolina as a Category 4 hurricane. After causing 95 fatalities in the US, Hazel struck Canada as an extratropical storm, raising the death toll by 81 people, mostly in Toronto. As a result of the high death toll and the damage caused by Hazel, its name was retired from use for North Atlantic hurricanes.
  In Haiti, Hazel destroyed 40 percent of the coffee trees and 50 percent of the cacao crop, affecting the economy for several years. The hurricane made landfall near Calabash, North Carolina, destroying most waterfront dwellings. It then traveled north along the Atlantic coast. Hazel affected Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York; it brought gusts near 160 km/h and caused $281 million in damage. When it was over Pennsylvania, Hazel consolidated with a cold front and turned northwest towards Canada.
context_section_description: After weeks of unusually high rainfall saturated the Greater Toronto Area, Hazel dropped additional rainfall, peaking at 8.4 in (214 mm) in Snelgrove, Ontario. In three hours, the city received 3.5 in (90 mm) of precipitation. Most of these rains ran off into rivers and creeks of Toronto, which raised water levels by as much as 20–26 ft (6–8 m). Not built to withstand heavy flooding, Toronto's infrastructure took a heavy hit: over 50 bridges, many parts of important highways, as well as numerous roads and railways were destroyed when the high water washed them out or carried debris and smashed them.
  Floodwaters slowly rose in Holland Marsh – a bowl-shaped valley near Bradford – allowing people to escape to the town. Highway 400, which passes through the marsh, was under as much as 10 ft (3 m) of water in some places when as much 6 m (20 ft) of water backed up. Much of the crops in the area were either swept away or ruined. After the water pumps failed due to debris, better equipment allowed the Holland Marsh to be drained by November 13. The Humber River in the west end of Toronto caused the most destruction as a result of an intense flash flood after most minor rivers and creeks drained into it. A team of five volunteer firefighters were killed when their fire truck was swept away as they were responding to help a stranded motorist. Communities in the Humber floodplain were devastated. In Woodbridge, the river swelled from its usual width of 20 m (66 ft) at its narrowest point to 107 m (351 ft), and left hundreds homeless and nine dead. The Humber swept away 366 m (1,201 ft) of Raymore Drive and 14 nearby homes, killing 35 people out of the 81 Canadian fatalities. The rise of the river was unprecedented and the residents did not evacuate, which led to the high death toll. The Etobicoke Creek also overflowed its banks at the village of Long Branch, killing seven people after many dwellings were swept into Lake Ontario.
  The death toll of 81 people has not since been equaled by a natural disaster in Canada. In addition to the casualties, over 4,000 families were left homeless. The Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada estimates the total cost of Hurricane Hazel for Canada, taking into account long-term effects such as economic disruption, the cost of lost property, and recovery costs, to be C$1.03 billion.
caption: The Lawrence Avenue bridge was washed out by the Humber River; part of it remained attached to the shore, while the rest was swept away.
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