The following offers supplementary material for
a recent Torontoist post, which you should read first before diving into this post.
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| Don River flood, looking south from Wilton Avenue (now Dundas Street) bridge, March 27, 1916. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 1170. Click on image for larger version. |
The City of Toronto Archives’ online treasure chest of
images includes plenty of pictures of floods along the Don River between 1916 and
1920. A few stories about those shots, starting with the March 28, 1916 edition of the
Globe:
Swelling of the Don, Humber, and Credit Rivers by the heavy
rain of yesterday put much land around Toronto beneath a tide of ice and
rushing water, while the flooding of the Canadian Northern Railway yards at
Rosedale to a depth of four feet suspended traffic to and from Toronto over
their lines for some hours, the eastbound afternoon trains being cancelled…So
far as the Don is concerned, this is the worst flood since 1897. One of the
remarkable features was the flight of thousands of rats driven from their homes
in the garbage-made land at the foot of the Winchester street hill.
The crisis in the Don Valley arose when ice cakes piled up
at the lower bridges and the water could not escape as rapidly as it poured
down from the upper reaches of the river.
So rapidly did the Don rise and flood the flats and yards
that it was impossible for the CNR to draw passenger coaches in the coach yard
on the east side of the river to the main line over a trestle. Heavy coal cars
were placed on the light bridge to hold it down and prevent it from being swept
from its light fastenings…At four in the afternoon the course of the river was
hardly distinguishable in the lake of water which spread from the hills on the
east side of the river to the CPR railway embankment on the east side.
Railway employees who returned from repairing the damage
done by a washout just north of the yards found that they could not reach their
cars and were forced to spend the night on dry ground, awaiting an opportunity
to reach their clothes and food by means of light engines, which were keeping
the mainline open…Cellars in factories along the Esplanade were filled with
water.
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| Don River flood, north of the Bloor Viaduct, February 26, 1918. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 34. Click on image for larger version. |
The Globe’s account also demonstrated some people were
determined to carry out their duties, even if it seemed absurd under the
circumstances:
A civic garbage collector ventured into the dump, which was
then under water to the extent of several inches, to deposit his load. Before
he could back out he was forced to wade in water five feet deep to unhitch his
horse and then to struggle to the Winchester Street subway. He narrowly escaped
drowning.
(If anybody knows what or where the Winchester Street “subway”
was, I’d love to know – I’m assuming it was some sort of railway crossing?)
That day’s edition of the World observed that the Don rose
eight feet over the course of two hours. “Old timers have been predicting such
a state of affairs, and their warnings have come true.” Spectators lined along
the Gerrard Street, Queen Street and Wilton Avenue (present-day Dundas Street)
bridges to watch the river spill out.
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| Don River flood, south from Wilton Avenue (now Dundas Street) bridge, February 26, 1918. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 41, Item 65a. Click on image for larger version. |
I used the February 1918 flood over others from the period
because of the parallel story with this week’s storm of people trapped on
trains, even if it was only Canadian Northern employees. The World’s account
from February 26, 1918 offered more details. Besides those who fled the scene
or sought refuge in cars, several employees were forced to climb to the roof of
a nearby roundhouse. Fire crews were sent from Rose Avenue and Yorkville to
rescue the men, but “owing to the insecure footing and the lack of apparatus,
the firemen were unable to reach the men.”
Captain Chapman, of the life-saving crew stationed at the
Island, was then notified, and men were dispatched to bring rockets and a
firing tube from the Island in order that a line could be shot across the river
to the roundhouse on which the men were isolated, it being the intention of the
life-saving crew and the firemen to rig a breeches buoy if possible.
Arrangements were made by the police to have a patrol wagon stationed at the
foot of Yonge Street to meet the life-saving crew and to assist them in moving
the apparatus with the greatest of speed.
For some time the residents in the vicinity of the Don have
been alarmed at the rapid rise of the water, but no great excitement prevailed
until early this morning when wild rumours to the effect that an avalanche of water
was sweeping down the valley alarmed all who had property there. Speaking to
the press this morning, J. McCarthur, who lives on Park Drove, said that he was
cut off from his cattle sheds and that he expected to lose about five head of
cattle.
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| Don Valley flood, north of the Bloor Viaduct, March 12, 1920. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 41, Item 113. Click on image for larger version. |
Railway workers marooned during one flood took their
situation in stride. The March 13, 1920 edition of the
World depicted plenty of
jokes coming from 12 of them stuck on a freight train, while their wives watched
anxiously from the bank:
One satisfaction remains to the castaways, they have food in
plenty in the store, now an island, beside which the train drawn up; drink is
all too plentiful, tho mud replaces alcohol, and they have golden hopes of full
pay with overtime for their hours of inaction and anxiety…
Anxious wives stand impotently on the banks. From across the
seething waters come the cheery voices of the men bidding them have no fear. No
raft built by the hands of man could withstand the angry onslaught of that
rushing stream; no swimmer could battle against the angry currents.
Whatever the wives may be thinking, the men themselves seem
to be taking the situation (several illegible words) cheerfully. “How many
teaspoons of tea ought I to put in?” shouted one to the World, putting his head
out of the caboose, where was acting as cook. Sing-songs were also the order of
the day…An offer of rubber boots to walk ashore in provoked a laugh.
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