By Dr. Ilan Kelman
On October 5, 1954, a tropical storm formed in the southern Caribbean, upgrading to a hurricane within a day. On October 15, it arrived in Toronto and the rain began. Hurricane Hazel would go down in history as a disaster that helped to shape the city.
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Toronto recovered, burying its dead, weeping with the bereaved, and supporting the rescuers haunted by who they could not save and those who drowned from their own ranks. The city also moved to ensure that this level of catastrophe would never happen again.
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Within a wider plan reorganizing municipal governance, a new citywide government took responsibility for planning and development. Its remit encompassed most of managing watersheds, sewage, transport, and floods, helping to coordinate flood disaster prevention. Rather than rebuilding houses in the same places, to be wiped out again in a later flood, recreational areas and parks succeeded the ravaged properties, recognizing that a floodplain's purpose is to be flooded when it rains a lot.
Today, the Humber River, the Don River, and their tributaries still flow right through the city, capturing the outflow from the watersheds to the north and discharging into Lake Ontario. The ravines around these rivers are protected, used for recreation and enjoying nature.