Columbus Day Storm of 1962 Columbus Day Storm of 1962 The Columbus Day Storm of 1962 (also known as the Big Blow, and originally as Typhoon Freda) was a Pacific Northwest windstorm that struck the West Coast of Canada and the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States on October 12, 1962. It is considered the benchmark of extratropical wind storms. The storm ranks among the most intense to strike the region since at least 1948, likely since the January 9, 1880 "Great Gale" and snowstorm. The storm is a contender for the title of most powerful extratropical cyclone recorded in the U.S. in the
Columbus, Georgia the Columbus Ladies Memorial Association’s call to observe a day annually to decorate soldiers’ graves inaugurated a movement first in the south and then in the north to honor the soldiers who died during the Civil War. With the expansion of the city, leaders who promoted establishing a university, founded Columbus College, a two-year institution which later was developed as Columbus State University, now a comprehensive center of higher learning. The city government became consolidated with the county in 1971, the first of its kind in Georgia (and one of only 16 in the U.S. at the time). Expanding on