Safe As Houses is based on true events caused by Hurricane Hazel in October 1954, when the Humber River near Toronto overflowed its banks and caused terrible flooding in the area. 30 people on just one street alone were killed.
In Walters’ fictional account, 13-year-old Elizabeth is babysitting 11-year-old David and 7-year-old Suzie in their home during the storm. The roads are so bad that the parents can’t make it home, so Elizabeth stays the night. Before going to bed she notices that the lawn is covered in water, but assumes they are safest to stay put in the house (safe as houses). Not long after that, she gets up off the couch only to have her feet land in a foot of cold water. David is also awake at this time, and together they decide to wait it out – it can’t get any worse, can it?
I pressed my eyes closed even tighter. I could close off the sights, but there were still the sounds. I could hear the rushing of the river around us in all directions. It was as though we were standing on the footbridge again. That sound was everywhere and constant, and it just kept getting louder and louder as the water rose higher and higher. Worse than the sound of the river were the unpredictable crashes and smashes as objects struck the house.
Soon they are forced upstairs, and soon after that they have to wake up Suzie because the water is still rising. Elizabeth feels the heavy responsibility of making the right choices and facing the possibility of death with each decision she makes.
All we could do was wait it out, wait for the water to flow away, for the level to drop, for the current to slow, wait to be rescued. And until that happened, it was my job to keep David and Suzie safe.
How terrible would it be for me to somehow survive and for Suzie to drown?
I’m not going to tell you what happens, but the story is gripping the whole way through. Elizabeth is the narrator; you think she must make it out alive, but you don’t really know, so you’re hooked.
As in a lot of YA and children’s fiction, the main characters are the children and the parents are no where in sight. In this case, the children are cut off by the storm and the flood. The story is empowering for kids; showing that these children are just as capable as anyone of taking care of themselves in such a dire situation; capable of coping with the fear, making tough decisions, problem solving with very little to work with, and forcing themselves to jump from the frying pan into the fire when they realize that the frying pan is about the be swept down the river.
… if I made the wrong decision, it would be the last thing I’d ever do, the last thing that any of us would ever do.
Suzie’s part in the book is based on the experience of Penny (Doucette) Phillips who was at home with her parents and 2-year-old brother at the time, all of them surviving by the skin of their teeth; their house being swept away moments after being rescued. If you want to read other personal stories about Hurricane Hazel, there are many to be found here.
All through the night, two men were going around in a boat, picking up as many survivors as they could. Their names were James Crawford and Herb Jones, and thanks to their courageous efforts, 56 people were rescued from the raging floodwaters that night.
We have several other Eric Walters books on our shelves that I have picked up over the years. You can be sure that I will be reading more of him. Does anyone have any to recommend?