Hurricane Hazel Personal Accounts

My husband, Peter Bates, whose grandmother Mrs. Alice Hargreaves was rescued from a tree during the flooding from Hurricane Hazel, wishes me to write you to thank you for your Web site.

Peter had been doing genealogical research and had finally located cousins on his mother's side and talked with some of them by telephone, and one of the cousins told him that his grandmother, whom he had never met, was rescued from a tree during the Humber River flooding.

Recently, I found the hurricanehazel.ca website and the link to people's personal stories about the hurricane and its aftermath, the rescues and how people helped others, and two stories your readers had sent seemed to tell about my husband's grandmother's rescue.

One story is from James Crawford, who pulled a Mrs. "Hardgrave" from the branches of a tree, along with the man who helped her out through the roof of his house.

The other is from Penny (Doucette) Phillips, whose father seems to have been the man who helped my husband's grandmother out of the attic of his house, where she had earlier taken shelter with the Doucette family.

Helen Bates
Belleville, Ontario

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