Disasters of Atlantic Canada: Stories of Courage and Chaos

Description:

• When Hurricane Juan made landfall over Nova Scotia in September 2003, it claimed eight lives, damaged $200 million in property and left many people without power for up to two weeks.
• The 1917 Halifax Explosion, the largest non-nuclear human-causes explosion the world has ever seen, killed over 1600 people and injured 9000 more.
• In 1982, a massive storm off Newfoundland’s Grand Banks smashed a porthole in the ballast room of the reputedly unsinkable offshore oil-drilling platform Ocean Ranger; all 84 crewmembers were lost.
• The Miramichi Fire of 1825 burned 20 percent of New Brunswick from north of Fredericton to Baie des Chaleurs.
• An electrical problem in the cockpit caused the crash of Swissair Flight 111 off Nova Scotia, in 1998, killing all 299 people on board.
• The Great Nova Scotia Cyclone of 1873 killed 500 people and destroyed 1200 vessels and 900 buildings in Nova Scotia and caused 100 deaths in Newfoundland.
• A methane explosion in Nova Scotia’s Westray mine in 1992 killed all 26 miners working underground that day.