Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-03-13
FAMOUS STORMS.
Some of the Earliest and the Latest.
Nsac York TFory3

1 Aslo 1or6 World.
Some Of the earliest storms recorded in
England would be voted picayune affairs
In the present time: for Instance, that OF
944, which destroyed 1900 houses in Lon.
don; that of October 5, 1O9l. which pre-
vailed in several parts of England, top
| ping over 500 houses In the METROPOLIS.
| Two OF these early storms are said to have
| eXerted no little influence upOn the course
| of English history-that of 1915. in which
| Hugh de Beauvais and the reinforcements
for John against the barons perished,
and that of 1889, which so mauled the
army of Edward III. on the march, by
Chartres as to compel the King to agree to
peace. Both of the Queens of Richard II. .
brought notable tempests in their train
when they crossed the Channel in 1882 and
1876, and the spirit of Oliver Cromwell
passed away on his ''lucky dav," the Sd
of september, l65S-the anniversary of
his great victories at Dunbar and Wor-
cester-ln the midst of hurri-
cane whose fury was felt far
beyond the boundaries of the British
Islands. The storm of November 1927.
lIO3, was, however, by far the most fllri-
ouss that ever ravaged England. This
was the tempest familiar TO all readers of
Addison-r who made his fortune by the
allusion to Marlborough. Not one YES
tage was left of the old EddystOne light
house, devised by the clever but eccentric
Wlnstanley, who perished in the struct-
ure. In the single county of Kent 1900
trees We're uprOOted, and 5000 lives were
i4st 6y the floods in the valley of
the Thames and Severn and the
blowing out to sea and upon the Dutch
coast OF scores of ships whose
treacherous anchors gave way. Twelve
men-ot-war were lost within sight of
shore, with their crews of 1900 men; and
1t IS an interesting comment upon the
condition of the times that. the people of
Deal would have left the 200 survivors to
be whelmed by the tide rising upon the
Goodwin Sands-the boatmen being too
BUSY picking up wreckage and the GUS
tom house officials refusing to lend their
boats for such an irregular service-but
Tor the efforts of the Mayor, who took the
boats by force, and then had to feed.
clOthe and bury the men he rescued at his
own expense. The Bishop of Bath and
Wells and his wife were killed in bed
by the falling of stack of chimneys
upon their roof. In London, twenty
one fatal accidents of this nature
were recorded during the week. and so
general was the demolition that building
materials and the wages of bricklayers
advanced from 400 to 600 per cent, In the
storm of October IL, 1887, hundreds of
vessels were cast away on the Indian
coast and 10000 lives lost. October %,
176S, occurred the well remembered storm
at Havana, in which 4, 900 houses were de-
stroyed and more than 1000 persons lost
their lives. Among the best known of
modern storms may be mentioned the
hurricane of January and I, 1889, which |
proved so destructive in the west of Eng |
land and in Ireland; the storm of NOyem- |
Der 1916, 1854, which entailed such dis |
aster upon the Crimean expedition, and |
that of October 1926, 1859, in which the |
Royal Charter and many another |
gallant ship perished. 1t may not be
amlss to recall that it was in
1857 that the British meleorologi-
cal department began the publica-
tiOn of its weather reports, the first storm
warnings being given three years later in
Holland by NJ. Buys-BallOt. Reid's sT.aw |
of Storms" published in 1888, had already |
familiarized the reading public with the |
hitherto little understood and much
dreaded cyclones. Some of these whirI- |
winds IN more recent days have been tre- |
destructive. That of October t
5, 1864, at Calcutta was followed by |
''bore'' in the HOOghly, when tho river |
rose thirty feet. 100 ships were destroyed |
and 10000 persons pePished. The storm |
Of November l, 1857, was still more de- |
structive of life, as 10000 persons |
were drowned, and an outbreak of |
cholera followed in the devastated dis
Most Iatarof all, however, was the cyclone
of October 81, 1876, in which 215,00O
Bengalis perished in space of time so
brief as to be reckOned by minutes. Some /
of the disasters in South America, though /
less destructive of human life, have been
marked by almost incredible displays of |
elemental VIOLENCE, OF hurricanes that
have wrought serious loss in our own
country within the last few years may be
that of April 10, 1880, by which
and two other towns in Mis-
souri, were literally torn to pieces; that of |
June II, 1881, by which 100 lives we're lost
in the northwestern portion of the same
state; that which smOte New Ulm,
Minn., July IL, 1881; the great hurricane
at Quincy, ILL.,, September "a, 1881, and
the still more violent storm which
wrought such damage at Savannah, Ga,
on the 9th Of August, in |
the same year. The year 1882 was
an unusually fatal one in all |
severity passed over Russia in January,
some six hundred fishermen at
the mouth ofthe VOlga; another hurricane
left scarcely rooted house OF a standing
plantation i'll the Friendly Islands; a
cyclone very nearly destroyed Manila in
October, In the United States furious
whirlwinds swept over Kansas, Michigan
tbiu lOWd oii TUE OJn Vi April, IlF0e weeks
later similar disasters were reported from
and Pennsylvania; and such
a storm visited Alabama as was without
a parallel in local annals. In June came
the destruction of Grinnell and Emmetts-
burg, Iowa, with some scores of lives,
and finally, at the September equinox,
storm whose severity displayed over
wide region in the Northern States would
have made the fortune of Virgins,
a Ticee, or Eennor had it only been pre-
dicted.