A Canadian City in Ruins

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVIII, Issue 2, 10 July 1912, Page 6

A Canadian City in Ruins

The Model Western Capital, Regina, Swept by a Tornado —Wide Area Levelled —A Million Sterling Damage, and Loss of Life (Comprehensive Views on Page 32.)

FROM a model city, the capital of the province of -Saskatchewan, and the pride of Western Canada, famous for its miles of pavements, for its unique and ornate buddings, for its ample and well-laid-out public reserves, for its educational endowments, for its clean and orderly appearance, for its successful administration of municipal enterprises and lowrate of taxation, Regina, representing years of patient endeavour and the expenditure of large sums of money, has in a few minutes of time been partly reduced to ruins. The destroying agency was a furious tornado, which struck the city in a thickly-built quarter, and, in cutting a swath two blocks wide and two miles long, levelled all the buildings within that area, and caused loss of life. Communication was shut off from the outer world, but relief trains were sent along from Winnipeg with doctors and nurses. Fires broke out, following on the destruction of the houses, but wers checked by the activity of the fire brigades. Several automobile parties were lifted bodily and hurled blocks distant, six grain elevators were destroyed on the Canadian Pacific Tracks. Parliament Buildings, just completed of reinforced concrete, withstood the tornado’s violence, but were badly shaken, and the town generally is a mass of ruins. Boats were hurled from the river surface, and carried three-quarters of a mile distant. Railway cars were carried into the streets from the yards. The girls who occupied the telephone exchange scrambled over the ruins of the

building unscathed to the street. A 15-{on switchboard fell beside them as they readied the street. A large gram elevator was carried off its foundations and moved 50ft. from its accustomed spot. Property loss is roughly estimated at a million sterling. Martial law. was proclaimed, and troops were brought out to suppress lawlessness. Regina, situated on the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, 350 miles west of Winnipeg, is the centre of the most densely populated portion of the province. Being the financial centre of the middle West, the city had ten chartered banks and a large number of loan) companies; it is a prominent distributing centre, and had railway facilities reaching to all parts of the province. Besides being the judicial centre of Saskatchewan it is the educational centre of the middle West, with a collegiate institute (a new building), a normal school, four public schools, and a separate school for which a new building was recently erected. The city hall was the finest and best-furnished in the West, provided by the proceeds of property sales, without costing the taxpayers a penny. The hotel accommodation m the city was also unequalled. Regina had municipalized its water supply, inexhaustible and pure, and its electric light service, the revenue' from which was sufficient to assist in keeping down the rate of taxation. There were six miles of grenolitlrie side-walks, besides roads paved in different material, and ample well-laid-out public reserves and boulevards. The magnificent church buildings were a feature of the city’s architecture.