The great April snowstorm of 1975

The great April snowstorm of 1975. Is this an April Fool’s joke?

No, it isn’t. April may be the month of April showers but it wasn’t in 1975. The April snowstorm of 1975 closed Creemore down for five days. It started with a thunder and lightning storm on Wednesday, April 2. Thursday morning people woke to find 14 inches of fresh snow and fierce winds. The blowing snow and winds continued every day until Monday when things calmed a little. Finally, on Tuesday there were normal conditions.

The Creemore Star of Wednesday, April 9 provides the details. On main roads only one lane was open and the one lane was always in danger of being closed because of the strong winds. The back roads were completely blocked. Mail was at a standstill and no Toronto newspapers arrived in Creemore. Of course, there were no school buses. The stores in Creemore were out of bread and milk.

The ski resorts found the storm less than a blessing with so many roads closed. Some people did try to get to the ski resorts but found themselves stranded. The stranded cars only added to the problems of the snow plows trying to open the roads. At one time Saturday morning there were 30 vehicles parked at Cashtown and not going anywhere.

On Thursday morning, when I saw the raging snowstorm outside, I walked out my laneway to the road. I could see perhaps five feet ahead of me. I knew that up in the hills the visibility would be zero. I concluded that it would be futile to try to get to my work in Collingwood.

My two boys, Frank and Alex, and I settled into a busy day. The furnace worked, we had power and the cupboards were full of food. But up on the hill on Fairgrounds Road conditions were different. My sister, Ruth, her husband, Bill, and two daughters, Karen and Peggy, lived in a farmhouse close to the road. Drivers who found themselves in difficulty made their way to my sister’s house. It was my sister’s birthday. Her daughters had bought her a coffee maker. When the strangers at the door came in Bill would say, “Sit down and have a coffee.” Thus fortified, the visitors would return to their cars and get themselves out of difficulty. Peggy remembers how exciting it was to keep making more coffee with the new machine. Finally conditions got worse and two men had to spend the night at their house.

Mary Kinghan remembers that storm well. Her son, Terry, was to be married that Saturday. At the time he was working in Toronto and managed to get home to Creemore by blindly making his way through whiteouts. Mary recalls that the snow and drifts on Creemore streets were so deep it was impossible to get around. As for the wedding, the only thing to do was to call it off. It was held the next Saturday.

Two weeks later, it suddenly became very warm and the rain poured down. Very quickly, the snow began to melt. The water came down the hill in sheets. Those unfortunate enough to live at the bottom of the hills found water running into their basements. The creeks overflowed and water was lying everywhere. The Mad River rose alarmingly.

My neighbours, the Hughes family, lived a short distance up the road from my place. Between the two houses was a culvert under the road allowing a creek to find its way to the Mad River. With all the debris washed down from the hills the culvert became clogged. The water rose and flooded the Hughes house. Mr. Hughes had just returned from receiving a chemotherapy treatment in Toronto. The house was no place for a sick and weary man. How to get Mr. Hughes from the house to safety was a problem. Another neighbour, George Webster, came with his tractor. He drove through the flood waters to the front of the house. He lowered the front end loader to the front door. Mr. Hughes was able to get in the loader and George carefully took him out to the road where his daughter was waiting with a car to take him to her house.

It took many days for life to return to normal. Roads were washed out everywhere. In Creemore, the Mad River overflowed its banks and filled cellars. Sump pumps were in short supply. Furnace repairmen spent long hours getting heat back on in damp houses.

At my place I watched the river get higher and higher, the water spreading across the fields until the whole valley was flooded. I kept watching my back door as the flood waters crept closer and closer. Finally, at about 11 p.m. it quit rising with one inch to spare before coming into the house.

All night long I could hear the huge big elms, killed by Dutch Elm Disease, crashing down the river.

That was the great April snowstorm and flood of 1975. There will come a time when someone will write the story of the great March ice storm of 2025.

Helen Blackburn is a retired teacher, avid gardener and a long-time contributor to the Creemore Echo. She writes about local history.