‘This storm spared no one’: Monday marks 50 years since Groundhog Day Gale hit the Maritimes

The Groundhog Day Gale hit the Maritimes 50 years ago.

An out-of-the-blue storm crashed its way into Maritime history 50 years ago Monday.

The Groundhog Day Gale would set a new benchmark for severe weather on Feb. 2, 1976, causing widespread chaos around southern New Brunswick and southwest Nova Scotia.

The storm, which produced winds of nearly 190 km/h, hit at the same time as exceptionally high tides in the Bay of Fundy. It led to a devastating storm surge and 12-metre-high waves.

A 30-year-old man from Saint John, N.B., died after he was swept away trying to secure a fishing shack on the Kennebecasis River in Rothesay.

Greg Marquis, an author and professor at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, remembers the day starting off a bit blustery, noting it wasn’t enough to cancel his classes as a Grade 12 student at St. Malachy’s High.

“I think that was one of the big issues with the storm,” says Marquis. “The weather forecast was strong winds, and suddenly this worse event hit.”

Marquis remembers the storm picking up intensity throughout the morning of Feb. 2, 1976, prompting an early dismissal from class.

“We were told to get a city bus at Kings Square and it was a pretty harrowing ride home,” says Marquis, remembering how the Reversing Falls bridge was closed shortly after his bus crossed over to Simms Corner. “We had to walk the rest of the way home, and there was a lot of stuff flying around.”

Around the same time, Eric Allaby was on Grand Manan Island trying to save “The Miss Web,” a fishing boat he and his business partner had just purchased a few days earlier.

The boat was docked in Seal Cove that morning. By late morning, huge waves were crashing over the cove’s breakwater, filling boats with water. Ultimately, “The Miss Web” would be found washed ashore, badly damaged.

“There was nothing anyone could do about it, as it would have been impossible to go down onto the wharf,” says Allaby, who would go on to become a longtime MLA. “The power went out at about noon. Our little house was shaking so badly, my wife bundled up our year-old daughter and went to her parents’ house, which was much bigger and more solidly built. But the wind was blowing so hard, she couldn’t open the door, so she went to her sister’s place.”

Allaby wrote in a journal later that night “the Groundhog Gale will go down in history as a storm to be remembered.”

Following months of repairs, “The Miss Web” would return to the water with a new name: “The Groundhog Gale.”

Grand Manan ultimately sustained millions of dollars in damage with swamped boats and flattened herring stands.

Other damage included a collapsed barn in Darlings Island, N.B., which killed 26 head of cattle, and a pair of covered bridges in Cambridge Narrows, N.B., torn apart during the storm.

Scaffolding and other materials were blown from high atop the Brunswick Square tower in uptown Saint John, which was under construction.

The roofs of several notable buildings were blown off, including Monton City Hall and the westside Saint John police station.

Power and telephone poles were snapped on both sides of the Bay of Fundy.

Freezing temperatures in the days after the storm hindered the recovery efforts, leading to another widespread power failure a few days later because of ocean salt spray short-circuiting lines.

“In Saint John itself many homes were damaged by falling chimneys, bits of roofs disappeared off shopping centres, and two Irving Oil ships were blown into a downtown causeway,” said an article in the national Globe and Mail on Feb. 4, 1976.

The Saint John Evening Times and Globe’s headline the day after the storm was, “This storm spared no one,” quoting Saint John mayor Edis. A Flewelling.

“Virtually no one escaped the brunt of the storm, which kayoed power service all over the city, cut transportation, and reduced telephone service to an emergency level only,” said the Evening Times and Globe’s front-page story.

It took days for residents to realize the full scope of damage from the storm, due to challenges with communications.

“This is what I would consider a once-in-a-multi-decadal storm type of storm system,” says CTV meteorologist Kalin Mitchell. “We don’t see these very often. In fact, it set a record for low barometric pressure in the state of Maine, which is where the city of the storm moved through.”

For Marquis, the storm’s place in meteorological record books is matched by how it opened people’s eyes to how severe weather could become.

“I think it became one of those signature events from that era that everyone remembers,” says Marquis. “I just think it was one of those bonding things for a lot of people.”

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