The Wind Storm of 1996—when GNS had its own boat dock!

If you were to Google Victoria’s storm of 1996 you would immediately get information about the record-breaking snowfall of December 28-29 when 65 cm fell in a 24 hour period. However, if you were connected in any way to GNS in that year, lived along the Oak Bay waterfront, or had a boat moored at the Oak Bay Marina, you may be surprised that there is now very little mention of the wind storm that hit Oak Bay on Wednesday October 16, 1996.

During a rain-saturated, hurricane-force storm with 170 km winds, boat dock ‘E’ broke away from the Oak Bay Marina and blew across the bay to the shore in front of, what was then, the Junior Boys Campus of GNS. Over forty boats were moved and many were damaged. There was still one man on the dock at the time. When quoted he said “I looked around and people were waving at me from the other slips as they were getting farther and farther away.” He was later rescued by the Coast Guard and brought ashore.
Southeast gales that howl across the Strait of Juan de Fuca are common, but this early and wild storm was exceptional. The long ‘tradition’ of students standing at the waterfront, jackets undone and arms spread-eagled to create wings so they could be blown backwards, was permitted for a short time at morning recess before staff realized the potential danger of such play.

Power was knocked out for several hours and the school was closed early for safety reasons. The following day, Victorians by the hundreds created a traffic jam on Beach Drive as people came down to the waterfront to view first hand the incredible sight of the boats rocking and rolling against the dock and the rock groynes. Owners of the boats came down to desperately try to prevent their vessel being damaged. The scene was chaotic, emotional, disheartening, and frustrating as panic and hopelessness set in over the sheer power of Mother Nature.

The students who returned in the next days, saw the potential for “pillaging and plunder” of the boats that had washed-up on their beach, but cooler heads prevailed and thankfully little “treasure from the shipwrecks” was ever removed.

Across the country, newspapers and magazines carried stories of this Storm of ’96, a title that would soon gain more attention as the “Snow Storm of the Century”, December 28-29, 1996, but it will always remain a vivid memory in GNS history.