Volume 33, Number 41        
November 16, 2008

 
The “I” of the Hurricane

 
   Call it a storm of controversy.

 
   In October 1954, Hurricane Hazel carved a path of destruction from the Bahamas to Brantford.  In southern Ontario alone, the storm killed 81, left 4,000 families homeless and wrought damage that, in today’s dollars, topped a billion.

 
   It all began on October 5th when the eye of the hurricane was spotted near the island of Grenada.  Soon after, Hazel ripped across Haiti, levelling entire seacoast communities and killing a thousand people.  Winds topping 240 kilometres an hour (150 mph) crashed into North Carolina where a wall of Atlantic water 4.5 metres high (14.5 feet) crushed the coast.  With extreme speed and fierce intensity, Hazel raced toward Ontario, leaving behind a hundred dead Americans.

 
   As the hurricane moved over the Great Lakes, it was demoted to “a severe storm” so residents in southern Ontario watched its approach with curiosity but not fear, especially since the official forecast for October 15th said “rain tonight.”  Sure enough, the rain fell long and hard as basements flooded, powerlines fell and shingles flew, but the worst seemed to be over by 10 p.m.

 
   But according to author Steve Pitt, the eight-hour deluge had dumped 300 million tonnes of water on farmland just north of Toronto.  Since the ground was already saturated from a previous week of precipitation, the land couldn’t absorb Hazel’s rainy rage so the water simply slid in a torrent toward Toronto, a city built largely on the ravines of rivers such as the Don and Humber.

 
   According to witnesses, residents heard a rumble and looked out their windows just before midnight to see a wall of water careening down the Humber.  It swept away an entire block of homes on Raymore Drive, killing 32 sleeping residents.  The next day, search teams found bodies under four feet of silt or caught in branches two storeys off the ground.  By that time, Hazel was on her way to the Arctic and Scandinavia where she eventually petered out.

 
   But she is still the deadliest hurricane in Canadianhistory.  Half a century later, the debate still rages whether residents were given adequate warning, but it’s clear many lives would’ve been saved if people had taken the storm more seriously.  The only consolation was that the hurricane led to sweeping new rules preventing construction on floodplains, leading to the creation of natural and recreational facilities near waterways all over the country.

 
   When it comes to sin in our lives, Hurricane Hazel serves as a cautionary tale.  Just like so many Ontarians thought themselves too far removed from the threat of a full-fledged Atlantic hurricane, many believers get complacent, thinking their faith, values or distance from “sinners” will keep them safe.  But the Bible is full of godly people like David and Peter who were swept away by sin they didn’t see coming.  The truth is, all of us are capable of just about anything in the right circumstances.  Forewarned is forearmed but usually we think the warning is for others.

 
   We’re especially vulnerable in a culture that downgrades the seriousness of sin, often treating the Bible’s warnings about God’s anger and sorrow as a quaint curiosity or a killjoy castoff from a primitive past.  When others roll their eyes then roll the dice, it’s easier for us to get caught up in the same culture of unconcern.

 
   We’re already at the point where society and and some churches are impervious to certain kinds of sin.  Instead of letting its implications soak in and sink deep into our Christian consciousness, many of us have become saturated with an acceptance of socially-condoned conduct, even when it flies in the face of our faith.  That’s when we become especially vulnerable to the tsunami of sin that rushes in while we’re morally asleep.

 
   But none of us can say we haven’t been adequately warned.  The Bible is our accurate, inerrant spiritual forecast and God expects us to take it seriously.  Otherwise, you become the “I” of the hurricane.  

 
By Rick Gamble.  Published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the followers of Christ congregation in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications.  To subscribe to this free weekly article, send a note to Rick at rgamble@bfree.on.ca