TIM MAGUIRE

On the morning of Friday, October 12, 1962—Columbus Day—a
massive storm hit the coast of northern California. The storm had originated several days earlier in the Pacific Ocean, about five
hundred miles north of Wake Island. 

Re-energized by a combination of unusual meteorological
conditions, the storm moved north with the gathering force
of a Category 3 hurricane. Originally named Typhoon Freda by meteorologists and called the Big Blow by many, it may have
been the most powerful extratropical cyclone ever to hit the
western United States.

Oregon experienced the full brunt of the typhoon and suffered
more damage than any other state. In addition to substantial
damage to thousands of buildings— residential, commercial,
and civic—and to miles of power lines, the severe winds
toppled countless trees in western Oregon’s forests.

The storm outranks all other natural disasters in the state in
terms of destruction and cost, including the 1903 Heppner
Flood. 

The intense winds left over a million people in Oregon without
electrical power, some of them for weeks.

A massive forest fire rages through Minnesota on October 12,
1918, killing hundreds of people, leaving thousands homeless
and burned at least 1,500 square miles.

The fire, known as the Cloquet-Moose Lake fire because that is
where the damage was worst, began at rail lines near Sturgeon
Lake. This region of Minnesota, southwest of Duluth in the
eastern part of the state, was ripe for a major disaster of this
sort. The area’s timber industry used crude slash methods in
the thick forests, leaving behind dry scraps that were perfect
kindling for wildfires. They also tended to leave these scraps
lying around the rail lines that carried wood from the lumber
mills. Since train engines of the time often gave off sparks,
fires were nearly inevitable.

Making matters even worse, the months leading up to October
1918 were very hot and dry. When the fire began, it spread
quickly due to high winds.