Regina Cyclone - Occurrence

Occurrence

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 400 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 just six weeks later, the new library was among the many buildings that suffered damage."

"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. "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 plane, lacking any trees or vegetation other than prairie natural wild grass and without any hills or rivers apart from the tiny spring runnoff 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."