September 8th, 1900 saw the advent of North America’s most destructive natural disaster to date. With winds of up to 150 mph and waters surging up to 16 feet high, this hurricane first hit Galveston, Texas before making its way through the American Midwest and into Canada’s maritime provinces. Tearing first through Southern Ontario, the storm wreaked havoc on homes and farms, killing one man in Niagara Falls. The storm picked up strength again as it hit the Maritimes and began to devastate the fishing fleets in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Grand Banks. At least 86 Canadians were killed in the storm, although it is suspected that even more were lost. Following this storm, Newfoundland requested that Canada’s storm warning system be extended throughout their province as well, in the hopes that future losses would be prevented by advance knowledge of upcoming storms.

Typhoon Freda, known as the Columbus Day Storm in the United States, began in the Pacific Ocean and merged with another tropical storm before hitting the west coast of Canada and the Northern United States on October 12, 1962. Freda was one of the largest storms of the century, stretching from San Francisco to the northern BC coasts, devastating Vancouver Island and the lower mainland. Hardest hit in Vancouver was Stanley Park, losing one third of its approximately 10,000 trees. In total, 7 people died in Canada and millions of dollars in property were lost. In the wake of the storm, the Canadian government made substantial improvements in its disaster response planning.