Rain Tonight: A Story of Hurricane Hazel

by Steve Pitt, Heather Collins

The weather forecast for the evening of October 15, 1954 was simply “rain tonight.” In fact, the hurricane was a devastating one. The storm swept from North Carolina up into Canada. In Toronto, Ontario, the official death count was 81, but it was probably much higher because the many people living in the ravines were not part of the census.

Penny Doucette was 8 years old on the night the storm raged in Toronto. She, her parents, and their elderly neighbor found themselves clinging to the roof of the house as they watched the house next door float away on the swollen Humber River. Augmenting the dramatic story are illustrations, archival photographs, and fascinating information about their causes, their history, and lore.

Published for the fiftieth anniversary of Hurricane Hazel, this is a valuable resource for young readers.

48 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

With a readable and approachable mixture of fiction and non fiction (accompanied by Heather Collins' sparse but expressive black and white illustrations, as well as more than ten actual archival photographs) Steve Pitt's Rain Tonight: A Story of Hurricane Hazel presents the vast devastation wreaked by Hurricane Hazel (October 15, 1954) on hundreds if not thousands of Southern and Central Ontarians (which included more than eighty fatalities, mostly caused by the flooding Humber River inundating riverfront roads and properties with massive amounts of water, as instead of there simply being "rain tonight" as the weather forecast had rather nonchalantly predicted, almost ten inches of precipitation fell within a very short period of time, causing dams to fail and the Humber to catastrophically crest in a very short period of time).

Narrationally focussing on the harrowing ordeal of one fictitious family affected by Hurricane Hazel's flooding, the Doucettes, who end up being rescued from the rooftop of their inundated home in the absolute nick of time (just before their house is swept away by the raging torrent of water that the Humber has become) and by recounting Rain Tonight: A Story of Hurricane Hazel from the perspective of the Doucettes' eight year old daughter Penny, author Steve Pitt personalises Hurricane Hazel, its impact, its horrors (including the fear and terror engendered and encountered when it becomes painfully obvious that this is not just a bit of rain, but something far far more serious and potentially deadly), although I do rather wish that the ending of Rain Tonight: A Story of Hurricane Hazel were a bit less abrupt, as I for one do feel as though the story kind of ends in medias res (right in the middle) so to speak, since I for one would certainly want a bit more detailed information regarding the Doucettes' post rescue life than simply those few sentences presented in the epilogue.

And finally, while I do in fact very much appreciate that throughout Rain Tonight: A Story of Hurricane Hazel author Steve Pitt has also included numerous (actually almost twenty) interesting and yes indeed strictly and entirely non fiction sidebars about hurricanes in general (which aside from this being delightfully informative also makes Rain Tonight: A Story of Hurricane Hazel considerably more universal in scope, as it moves the book away from being just one family's story of how they survived one particular and nasty storm), sadly and frustratingly I do (and once again) lament that there is unfortunately no included bibliography, no suggestions for further study and reading, which really and truly would very much increase not only the potential learning but also the teaching value of Rain Tonight: A Story of Hurricane Hazel.

[Karen Upper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very informative read about the only time that a hurricane impacted on a large Canadian city! Eric Walters book "Safe as Houses" is also a great companion book to use with this book by Mr. Pitt!

[Robert Hindley Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hazel Remembered

I was 7 in 1954 and living on Glen Agar a few miles from the locale of the family in this book. Our subdivision was under construction and I remember the excavations filled with water the next morning. Thanks for the history lesson.

[Ashish Ahsan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A personal account of a hurricane that changed housing policies in Toronto. Because it is a personal account, it touches the heart readily. In addition, there are a lot of historic and scientific information on hurricane.