New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-12-19
Storms I'm Germany.

The Berlin correspondent Of the London
Daily Telegraph, writing on November l6, says:
" For the last three days Berlin has been, so
far as telegraphic communications are con-
cerned, cut off from the rest of Europe. On
Thursday the farthest town of any import
ance with which we were in position to
keep up intercourse by wire was Halle and
our electric relations with Paris, Cologne,
Brussels, Vienna, Frankfort, &C., are not
yet fully re-established. The great storm of
Tuesday night and Wednesday morning ragged
over the north of Europe with a violence un-
precedcnted within the memory of living man;
indeed, the local annals of the Baltic and
Ost-Sce coasts contain no record of so furious
and destructive a tempest for nearly two
hundred years past. All the lines of railway
radiating to the different points Of the COM
pass from this capital have been incumbered
with broken telegraph poles business on the
BOurse has been at stand-still sea-walls
have been smashed into atoms, and trains
swallowed up in the great waters. The ac-
counts that reach VI to-day from Stralsund,
Kiel, Greifswald, Swinemund, &C., read like
the descriptions Of a second deluge. On
Wednesday the greater part Of Greifswald
was under water. The Ost-See stood five
feet deep in the streets Of that thriving little
town. The terrific northeaster which wrought
all the damage drove such immense masses
Of sea-watsr into the harbOr Of Stralsund that
for many hours Quays, streets, stOre-sheds,
dry-docks, and the whole adjacent country
were submerged, the level attained by the
flood being nearly eight feet above high-water
mark, or three feet beyond the highest level
ever hitherto reached-in 1868, on the 9th Of
November, when the flood touched five feet
above high-water mark. Ships and steamers,
fshng-boats, and transfer-cargo barges in
the harb0r were torn from their mOorings,
dashed against one another, and sunk or car
ried inland by wind and wave, to be crushed
against stone walls or foundered away up
country, far beyond the old coast line. An
English schooner was hurled against the
steamer Hertha, which forthwith sank like
stone. About sixty fishing smacks foundered
in Stralsund harbor alone. The railway
bridge held out against the roaring food for
some time, but at last gave way and was en-
quilted. Even the barracks were inundated.
Kiel presents a no less dismal spectacle than
Stralsund. Some Of its streets are strewn
with wrecked boats, tremendous beams and
timbers from the building wharves, doors torn
off their hinges, window easements, rudder-
posts, and ali sorts of dayecta n,enatra, carried
from their respective places of belonging by
She salt flood, and deposited, ''promiscus-
like, ali over the lower part Of the town.
-ts lOf tiiC ncL"oTN Oh tc!cSrapii wires, spun
with such labor and such expense, over the
face Of these northern lands, it has suffered
injury to an extent so considerable that all
the energy and promptitude manifested by
the officials in charge has not suiliced to re-
store anything like order or normal working
condition to the system Of home communica-
tons, far less to that connecting Berlin with
the capitals Of foreign countries. Dispatches
fur das Ausland' have been steadily refused
since Wednesday morning, and their would-be
expeditors by wire have been forced to for
ward them by post. But the railway and
steamer traffic lines have been disturbed too
the English mails failed to arrive here for
three consecutive days, and express trains
Oh main lines are arriving at all sorts of &C.
centric times not in the Fair plan, from two
TO eight hours late. This morning We were
informed that communication with Posen
tPruSsian Poland) was restored, and that the
total number of craft foundered at Stralsund
is over eighty. All the iishing-boats belong
ing to Zingst, Oars, and Hiddcnso are gone
to the bottom eight people were drowned at
Nenvits; all along the coast the inhabitants
are ruined, and, moreover, suffering horribly
from want OF water, the sea having flooded
all the wells"