“Power Cut Off, Traffic Halted, Cellars Flooded When Water Main Breaks,” Toronto Star. November 22, 1941. Page 30.
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NIGHT WORKER AWAKENS STARTLED RESIDENTS TO ACCOMPANIMENT OF ROARING FLOOD WATERS THAT BRING ‘BLACKOUT’ TO WEST TORONTO
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Awakened by a furious pounding on their doors, startled residents of Edwin Ave. found their cellars flooded and heard the roar of rushing water at 4 a.m. today. A burst water main was the cause of their woe. Steven Kowadchu (RIGHT) was on his way home when he walked into the flood. He went from house to house awakening his neighbors, ‘I was scared,’ said Steve, as he told of wading through water three feet deep to get to his home. ‘It was awfully black.’ He climbed two fences, entered his own home by the back door and found the fire out and the house full of steam. The main burst in the yard of Ambrose Bond, 74 Edwin Ave. It left a hole like a bomb crater and lifted the car of Steve Musurka high in the air in the garage behind Bond’s home. A load of cordwood, stored in the garage, descended into the crater and floated about. Car and cordwood may be seen CENTRE. ‘It was coming down the lane like the Johnstown flood,’ said Mrs. Bond. It swept into the hydro sub-station, flooded the cellar and crept up into the machinery, causing a blackout of a large section of West Toronto, including many industries. Jack Patterson, hydro worker, donned rubber boots (LEFT) and investigated the damage. In the picture he is shown in that section of the sub-station least affected. Behind him, through the doorway, he would descend into water over his head.