Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-02-08
LIST WEEK7S .STORlN.

A HEAVY FALL OF sNow-fuR1ous GALE oN THE
ATLANTIC coAsT-Loss or A STEAMSHIP AND
100 L1vEs-sHocRINa DIS srER AT COMFY
ISLAND.
The entrance of whnt the almanac calls the
last of the winter months, was marked by one
of the sevcrest and most widely -cxtcndcd
storms of wind and snow of recent years. In
New England the actual damage done by the
storm was only slight, and its worst feature
was the inconvenience caused, in some sec
tons, more particularly in and near Boston,
by the fierce gale and the snow blockade
But elsewhere the case was far different
About o'clock on Thursday afternoon, in
the midst of n furious southeast gale, the
steamer Metropolis, which left Philadelphia
the previous Tuesday for Brazil with railroad
supplies and upward Of POO lnborcrs for the
Madeira and Mamore railroad went ashore
on Currituck beach on the coast Of North
Carolina, three miles from the lighthouse and
20 miles north Of the Kitty Hawk signal sta
ton. The vessel made complete wreck,
and of the 2lS persons on board il is sup
posed that 100 were lost The disaster, in its
general features, is similar to that Of the
United States steamship Huron which hap
pencd in the same vicinity only about two
months ago The tempest being very violent
the officers were unable to make observations,
and the vessel, unawares, got into the strong
current setting toward the shore During
Thursday afternoon the sea got to the engine
fires, the vessel having previously sprung
Il leak, and the engines being useless, sails
were tried, but they could be used to no adj
vantage, and the captain, giving up his pur-
pose to save those on beard by Bleaching the
steamer ordered all to provide themselves
with lifc-preservers. From that moment it
was every man for himself. The Metropolis
was owned by NJ II. Simpson Of Boston,
G.. W. Copeland and the Lunt brothers of
Philadelphia. She was of wood SO tons
burden and was rebuilt in ISL She could
not have been a very valuable craft The
cargo was valued at S5O,OOO.
The storm of The same night, Thursday,
strucl, on Concy island, near New York city,
with tremendous violence. and eight lives and
much property were sacrificed on the east
| side About half mile cast of the big hotel
at Manhattan beach were two small shanties,
where two men, named Wynne and Bren-
nan. employed rs watchmen by the hotel
company. lived with their families. Shortly
after 10 o'clock the men left their homes to re.
| port the alarming state of affairs to Weed,
the head Waterman, and during their absence
the shanties, in which they left their families,
were swept away, and the occupants. two
women and five children, persisted. The
storm struck with such terrific force that the
husbands 20 suddenly rendered dosolate could
not remain near the spot moment, and with
great difficulty escaped with their lives. The
| Manhattan beach hotel property suffered Sc
verely. Tho beautiful Japanese structure
was swept away, and the east end of the no
tel was damaged, the engine-room and bath
| ing houses were swept into the sea, the sta
bies and out-hOuses have disappeared. and
over 1000 feet of the new railroad track in
the rear Of the hotel is washed away. The
total loss to property is estimated at between
| so, 900 and SiOOOO.
At Long Branch, y. j., the storm was the
most terrific ever experienced. Almost every
building on the shore between Sandy Hool
| and Long Branch is more or less damaged
and all the places on the beach had theii
| grounds badly washed, in some instances Il
or 20 feet of the bluff being taken away il
front Of the cottages and hotels The bath
houses are all gone, and many beautiful sum
warehouses; were either washed away 10y tn,
sea or blown to pieces by the gale,
Many buildings in the vicinity Of New Iorl
used 10y summer pleasure seekers. beside
those on Coney island, were destroyed, nota
bly, at Far Rockaway and Babylon, Long Is
land.
In central and eastern New York the snow
fall was heavy, and trains on the trunk line
AS far west as Chicago were blocked for hours
also some of those on roads beyond that point
Numerous minor disasters to shipping mr.,
reported ON Long Island Sound, and all alonl
the Atlantic coast In Boston about Is inch
IS of snow fell and tn storm was the severes
which has been experienced in that city sine