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by Melanie Hennessey CANADIAN CHamPron starr Whllc there are many moments that have shaped Milton‘s history in a positive way, there are also times of hardship marked on the pages of the community‘s 160â€"year story From major fires to natural disasters, Milton has seen its share of bad fortune. One disaster that can still be easily rememâ€" bered by older Milton residents is Hurricane Hazel, which whipped the area with high winds and flooding in 1954, "Creek Rampages in Hurricane‘s Backlash" boldly states the Champion‘s headline on Ocâ€" tober 21, 1954. "Milton found roads leading to the county impassable, parts of the town inundated and services out of order," says the article from more than 60 years ago. "Hydro, town workmen and members of the fire brigade battled through the windâ€"lashed Friday night into the preâ€"dawn hours of Saturâ€" day to alleviate local conditions that resulted in serious losses, although much valuable merchandise was saved. Main Street stores were forced to begin evacuation of basements at 7:30 p.m. Friday night as the water rose more than three feet in an hour." Local historian Marsha Waldic remembers Hurricane Hazel well. She was just a young girl ADDITIONAL OISCOUNT* + GET 2 TICKETS to a TFC GAME / 100,00( / UNLIMI 5 YEARS -_.--..fxc-o-.g- s o K tan ot is ut te <ho ue ahany dbad whe hen disaster strikes at the time, and her father was a local hirdighter. "He was out all night dealing with it," she recalled. "There was a lot of damage for sure. It was very wideâ€"spread." While Waldie and her mother sought safe refuge at a friend‘s house, Mayor Gord Krantz was driving into Milton, unknowingly putting himself at the heart of the flood Just a teen at the time, Krantz recalls that he was travelling from his Milton Heights home to the old Brown Street arena to watch a midgâ€" et wrestling match "I remember it very well. When I left to come down to the arena around 5 or 6 things weren‘t too bad. But 1 get to town only to find out that wres tling has been cancelled because of the storm," he said. "I started heading back home at around 8 or 9 and the water was really rising then." Krantz said he made it across Tremaine Road at the 16 Mile Creek crossing, but there were already a few cars stuck in the centre of the road, their motors killed by the rising water "I probably didn‘t realize the severity of it until the next day when 1 heard through the media. But I don‘t think my parents even had a TV then," he said with a laugh About a decade later, Krantz was involved in another of Milton‘s disasters â€" this time in the form of a major fire that burned down the Mcâ€" Gibbon Hotel in downtown Milton. By then, Krantz was serving as a volunteer 150 Prmk is NO CHARGE ACCESSORIES i nds l ) KM TED KM WARRANT Y )ADSIOE SEE QOUR ENTIRE fhirefighter. He, wife Olive and young son Dave were living in a thirdâ€"floor Main Street apartâ€" ment. On that fateful Friday night, the trio was enjoying an early dinner as Krantz was, ironically, preparing to attend a fire prevention event. "We were half way though supper and the phone rings. And it was a solid ring, so you knew what it was," said Krantz, explaining that he used to receive fire calls via the home phone. "Olive answers, hangs up and says, ‘There‘s a fire at the Milton Inn.‘" Looking out the window at the McGibbon, Krantz recalled that he couldn‘t see any flames or smoke. But he headed over anyways, su_ilcd up and went in to help evacuate the building. Please mr that overflowed the banks of mg EM miumtn::;b:f the October 21, 1954 issue of the Milton streets ded by water â€" 1 o Charles, Mary, Commercial and Fm m,msx'r;o;nm: nt:ywsp aper article, experienced basement flooding. ‘62 auhy | 4 wviavivo noruwm | blished on ng Sixteen Mile Creek, this photo pu m(,!agadian Champion shows houses, bounded by the backiash of Hurricane Hazel. These Once inside, the firefighters discovered that the fire was in the partitions of the roof and ing. L c'il(l)ntév: it was detected, it took off !ikt crazy, he said. "We thought we had that thing beat on more than one occasion and we were (he(e all night, but eventually we lost it (the building). It was an historic site â€" one of those old waâ€" tering holes that had been there for decades. g Other notable disasters that have earned a spot § in Milton‘s history include an historic fifc lbal_ destroyed the Robin Hood Flour Mills grinding mill in 1963, which you can read about elseâ€" € where in this section, and an F1 tornado that 3 swept through the older part of town in 2009, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. J | NOKINWVH> § § $ Drive Safely this Canada Day Long Weekend! '.‘h'z' En m // 2017 "?f id .:'â€";,,. wâ€"â€"â€"â€" q T WITH AUTOMAT TRANSMISSION NEWLY REDESIGNED . a!'EUAY 39 INCLUDES $2,000 Bowus* IC ()‘5 Ontario St. N., Milton €al \’\ 905â€"878â€"7700 INVENTOR www.multonkia.com tOn .\\.Y‘j EUE