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HomeMy WebLinkAbout353"Article copied from the News Advertiser, October 14, 1954, written by Richard Beales on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Hurricane Hazel. Ajax Pickering - Henry Westney was watching Pinocchio at the Roxy Theatre in West Hill when Hurricane Hazel hit Durham region. While he and his two daughters, then aged 6 and 7, sat in comfort with their popcorn and soft drinks, the greatest storm ever to hit this area was cutting through the roadways, houses and buildings of Ajax and Pickering. The night was October 14, 1954. Westney and his girls enjoyed the first show so much, they decided to stay for the second feature, Elephant Walk. Meanwhile, Westney's wife Dorothy was getting more worried by the minute. The three headed home to north Ajax along their normal route, Highway 401. When Westney tried to turn onto Church Street, however, he found his path blocked by the overflowing Duffins Creek. He backed up on the ramp, and headed for Harwood Avenue. That exit was clear enough so he headed north for Highway 2. He didn't get very far. As he approached Westney Road, he saw that, too, was flooded over. So he headed back to Harwood and drove north. The Third Concession road was also blocked off, so he headed for the Fourth. Finally, an access route. The family headed home along the Fourth Concession and down Westney Road. But they still weren't aware of the seriousness of the situation. ""We didn't realize until the next day what a serious storm it had been,"" Westney says. Another area resident, Cyril Morley, knew at the time - as a member of the Ajax volunteer fire department, he was in the thick of things. He and his colleagues spent most of that night rescuing people from Duffins Creek in rowboats. ""One side of the creek was more flooded than the other,"" he recalls. ""It flooded the road. The water was two or three feet thick; it stopped the traffic."" The Pickering volunteer fire department was just as busy. Don Lynde, who later went on to become the chief of the Pickering Fire Department, recalls the chaos. The volunteers, in motorboats, plucked stranded individuals from the overflowing Duffins Creek and the Rouge River. Lynde's team made a successful first run down the Rouge, bringing in people who were stranded on their rooftops. ""But the second time in, the motor hit a car and the boat flipped,"" he says. ""Two guys went into a tree."" ""So we went back and borrowed a 14-foot 25-horsepower boat from Fred Mork. We got the guys from the trees, but we left the goats. "