When it happened in 1917, The Halifax
explosion was the largest and most devastating man-made explosion that the
world had experienced. It would not be surpassed until the atom bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima 28 years later. The scientists who developed the atom bomb
were able to use the data on the affects of the explosion on the structure and
population of Halifax in their planning. Unlike the bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagaski, the Halifax explosion seems to have dropped from public memory, news
of its losses quickly supplanted in newspaper headlines as the First World War
entered into its dying days; its final months.
In 1918, the world was busy counting its
dead from the theatres of war and then from the Spanish Flu which hit the
already distressed citizens trying to get back to normal life. The citizens of
Halifax had started on their shaky recovery before the rest. When the 1918
count of the losses from the explosion was done there were 1611 known dead and
missing. Present day figures put this amount at about 2000 souls. Many more
were injured. Estimates put the amount of injured at about 6000, many of whom
were blinded by flying glass. There was an immediate need for shelter as
approximately 9000 people were homeless. Tents were pitched on the common but
the day after the explosion saw a blizzard which blanketed the ruined city in
white. Restoration of the city was needed right away.
Sources
Boyd, Michelle Herbert, Enriched by
Catastrophe: Social Work and Social Conflict after the Halifax Explosion,
Fernwood Publishing, Black Point, Nova Scotia 2007
MacDonald, Laura M., Curse of the
Narrows, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, Toronto, Ontario, 2005
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