Weekly national intelligencer., 1854-11-18
GREAT GALE AT BUFFALO.
FROM THE BUFFALO DEMOCRACY OF rursDA

FROM THE BUFFALO DEMOCRACY OF TUESDAY
Yesterday was one of the days such have given Buff
falo its bad eminencs windy town. All through the
long night the tempest would rage while the gathering
of signs and the sanmng of shutters and the crash OF
broken windows made up the mournfu accompaniment.
In the lower part of the there sorrow and suf
fering in plenty The water had spread the fats
and families were driven from the shelter Of their tene
ments to seek charity among strangers In many In
stances the houses uprooted from their foundations
and drifed off from the boiling food Domestic animals,
outbuildings fences furniture lumber piles OF wood
were aoa went with the wherever chance
and the gale determined The cellars and lower floors Of
substantial buildings within reach Of the deyasta-
ton were submerged and property was destroyed to
ruinous extent.
1t was ptul sight to see the members Of those poor
families who had suddenly been visited by the food
standing in their night Clothes with such scanty raj
ment they had been able to seize at the moment Of
alarm, running hther and thither among the wreck
deayoring their little store from destruction and
los while the cruel wind tapped their covering to shreds
and the cold winter stened their limbs Now and again
weeping circle might be gathered about the body
Of some drowned friend just extrcated from cellar or
basement where death had intruded suddenly as to
leave chance Of escape group of curious spec
tators watching the efforts Of charitable few who
vainy attempted to restore to life an unknown, nameess
one who had met his fate in barn under stack
pile of lumber, having crept there in drunken moment
and gone to sleep forever.
The vessels at the docks had parted their moorings
and getting foul of each other had stove their buwarks
TORN away Iner anu Snattereu tnelr sparS
Shreds Of canvass bits Of bunting the frayed ends Of
rope futtering in the Storm and long pieces Of
rigging, with blocks attached swinging like pendu
lums threatening with death any who approached to
secure them An occasional schooner, with but mere
stitch Of canvass set with her topmass and bboom spn
tered her bulwarks gone, and her hull and shrouds
cased in ice would make the harbor while Others less
fortunate lay stranded the beach, above and below
the mouth Crowds of men, with spy glasses swept the
foamng surface Of the lake and reported vessels under
Point ADno riding out the storm, and others scudding
for dear life farther away upon the expanse Of tumblng
angry waters.
In the Streets sign boards tin roofs rolled and
pied like paper conductor pipes branches of trees parts
gave evidence of the destruoonthe tempest had wrought
Business was suspended; none thought Of buying or
selling merchants safe their stoves and cracked
whitfield while the ladies kept at home and felt
as blue as they had q mind.
FROM THE BUFFALO COMMERCIAL OF TUESDAY EVENING.
The gale Of yesterday continues and is this morning
accompanied by bitter storm wind little south
of west Outdoor business is almost entirely suspended
The schooner Armada which cleared from this port for
Saginaw few days since returned early hour this
incoming, having made Point Pelee light before the
gale struck her. Capt Tracy reports large number Of
vessels under shelter at Long Point.
Luckily there is not yet much Of feet the lake
bound down. schooner is ashore Windmill reef be-
tween the lighthouse and Fort Erie. On Monday FIVE
vessels went ashore in the gale the east and sight
deck two feet under water the Forest Queen, of Oak
vile, from Lake Erie. her rudder and stern post gone
the William and John aground the Paragon of Toron-
to, aground, with two feet water in hold; the Sarah
Frances Of ST. Catharnes, rudder and foremast gone
There is little doubt others the fate farther east