What happened to Harold Chambers during the
tornado? The Union bank escaped unscathed,
so it would have been relatively safe to be there but it was Sunday so he wasn't at work. Was he at home on Smith
Street when the tornado hit? Or had he ventured out, perhaps to Wascana Park or
somewhere beyond the reach of the funnel clouds?
In 1912 Harold was rooming at 2152 Smith
Street and Smith Street was on the main path that the tornado carved through
the city. Very few buildings along the street's length escaped the wind's
wrath. Being out and about that Sunday would have been a good choice. But even
if Harold hadn't been at home, he would, no doubt, have ended up among the homeless.
What happened to Harold in the disaster? I
like to think that he would have been one of the men called upon to help in the
aftermath of the disaster. But maybe he was among the wounded. It remains to be
seen what can be uncovered in local records. Whatever the immediate effect of
the disaster, Harold's 1913 entry in Henderson's directory gives his location
as the Union Bank, so he retained his employment in the aftermath of the disaster but it looks
like it took a while before he had a permanent address again; maybe a common
fate for the many homeless in the wake of the storm.
Is there any written record of Harold’s
experience? I like to think that he at least wrote to his remaining relative,
his uncle Charles Pratt Chambers who would have been fascinated by his nephew's experience as he had made
a study of weather. Now if only I could find that correspondence.
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
Looker, Janet (2000). Disaster Canada. Toronto,
Ontario: Lynx Images Inc.
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