It was Sunday and Regina had been baking in
the heat for days. The more venturesome headed out to Wascana Park to cool off
by the lake; while others, many lethargic from the heat, stayed home. It was
June 30, 1912 and Reginans were anticipating the next day's Dominion Day
celebrations. But those celebrations never happened.
When dark clouds and rain came in from the
south, many welcomed the storm as relief from the heat. But the rain and
lightning were soon followed by a funnel cloud which had formed in the fields
outside the city limits. Touching down on farms outside the city limits, the
tornado left death and destruction in its wake before heading into the city to
wreck more havoc.
As the tornado came in through Wascana
Lake, swimmers headed for shore and boaters tried to get out of its way. Some
tried to take shelter in the boat club. The funnel cloud came through the lake,
sideswiping the Legislative Building causing damage to windows and rooms and
sucking out all the grade school exam papers in the Department of Education.
When it reached the other side of the lake it destroyed the boat club and the
other buildings on the north shore, injuring those who sought refuge there.
NewsTalk980CJME CJME's Natalie Geddes remembers the cyclone.
Day out at Wascana Lake
City of Regina Archives Photograph Collection,
CORA-B-779
Sources
Anderson, Frank (1980). Regina's
Terrible Tornado, June 30, 1912. Surrey, BC, Heritage House Publishing
Company
Bingaman, Sandra (2011). Storm of the
Century: The Regina Tornado of 1912. Regina, Saskatchewan: Canadian Plains
Research Center Press
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