Lorinc has a solid historical story here: vivid accounts of the immense Winnipeg flood of 1950, and of the 1948 Fraser River flood that devastated much of British Columbia's lower mainland, and of Hurricane Hazel's lethal impact on Toronto in 1954. He also describes Halifax's flooding in 1942, which effectively isolated the central city on its peninsula from outlying areas -- and the rest of Nova Scotia.
It's a good story, well studded with quotes from environmental historian Jennifer Bonnell and other historians. Gerald Friesen is quoted about flooding around Winnipeg in 1997. But it gets added heft from Lorinc's care in linking these disasters to the ways local authorities reacted in the short and long term.
After 1950 Winnipeg (eventually) got started on building its Big Ditch bypass for Red River overflows. Ontario began developing its system of Conservation Authorities, and they led the way in forbidding urban development in low-lying ravine floors in Toronto and other cities. Halifax invested in bypasses and overpasses.
Lorinc contrasts these with British Columbia's limited responses on the Fraser River, which so far has not faced a full repeat of 1948, despite flooding in 2007 and 2021. "There's no political consensus as to which level of government should take responsibility for flood protection," Lorinc writes.
He notes also that Ontario is busy dismantling the watershed-level planning undertaken by the conservation authorities since Hurricane Hazel. It's this political sting in his history that really elevates Lorinc's article. At the conclusion, he quotes Professor Bonnell: "It's important to do the work of stitching that back in time to remind people that this is not a totally anomalous event." Well said.
I have loved ones who live below sea level behind the dikes in Richmond, B.C. And the place from where I write overlooks one of Toronto's ravines (now almost entirely parkland). I look out sometimes wondering how big a flood it will take to surmount the steep bank that's just below my window.
