Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-21
A ROARING STORM.
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT
DAMAGE LONE.
The Heaviest Visitation of Wind
and Rain Sacramento has
Known In Many Years.

Early yesterday morning strong breeze |
from the southeast set in, and before the
forenoon was well advanced it incl eased 10
a gale, and was accompanied by heavy
rainfall. About noon the storm was at its |
hight, and about 2:30 it had moderated
greatly, and soon ceased. While it pre-
vailed considerab damage was done in
the city, fences, gates, small buildings, etc. |
being blown down, signs sent flying in |
every direction, and trees and shrubbery |
destroyed or seriously injured in every por-
ton of the city. Hundreds of papes of |
glass were broken in windows, tin roofs |
were made TO suffer, and roofs leaked that |
never leaked before. When the storm
commenced the orange trees were tolerably |
well laden with fruit when it ceased the |
fruit was living on the ground and the !
small boy was feasting his eyes upon it |
from the sidewalk, and wondering if any |
one was looking, and what would |
happen if he should be caught inside !
the fence. The wind at times had |
an eccentric twist to it, consequent upon |
its shifting from one point to another in |
an unsettled manner, and this was the |
cause OF its doing so much damage. 1t |
was an evil-dispositioned wind as could |
be observed in its conduct towards fences |
If possible il sent a fence to the ground |
with a straight-from -the-shoulder blow; |
but if it failed to knock it out with one |
gust, but only staggered it, as it We're, it |
would go after 1t like a catch-as-catch-ca |
wrestler, toss 1t about viciously tumble |
all over it and crunch it, and not cease |
until it was as flat as pancake and I'M
able to come to time. 1t was Il great day |
for flying hats, and when g man wasn't |
chasing his own tile he could laugh at |
somebody that was in anxious pursuit of |
Woodworking through mud ard rain. At |
the passenger depot two of the large storm |
doors broke from their fastenings and |
came down with n crash. first one and |
then the other, making such racket that |
nervous people began to fear that the |
building would soon tumble about their |
ears. Doubtless the widest scene in |
the city was created by the thrashing |
about of the tall eucalyptus and ever |
green trees i'll the grove in front of the !
depot sitting rooms the wind making them |
writhe and bend and snap, their tops at |
times almost touching the ground, and |
their branches intermingling in utter con-
fusion. The eucalyptus trees withstood |
the strain nobly for hours, but when the |
storm reached its hight many of them sue
cumbed and will have to be cut up for fire |
wood. Nearly 100 trees, of the number |
ornamenhng the grounds about the rail- |
road works, were blown down. After the |
gale subsidized some one called attention TO |
the eucalyptus trees that survived, and in |
quired Don't they look tired?' and they |
certainly did seem TO be examples of COM |
plete WEAKNESS. Very few ladies appeared |
on the streets during the day, and - rude |
Boreas'' never showed himself more rude |
than his treatment of those that ventured |
out. Horses that were doing duty had the !
hardest time of all animate things, and fire. |
quently were unable to make headway |
with they ehicles to which they were at |
tached. Finally, business having been |
virtually brought TO a standstill, the larger !
business houses sent their trucks and big |
wagons to the stable, and the car. express |
wagon and hack-horses were almost the |
only equine sufferers. Railroad men ar |
irving on the various trains reported the |
worst storm of the season wherever they |
came from, and there was a general re |
hearsal Of the fact that the Signal Service |
had prognosticated For California. GEN
orally fair weather with variable Winds |
The
DAMAGE REPORTED
Was serious in many instances The roof |
of the new Phoenix Mill, on Thirteenth |
street, built by George Schroth TO replace |
Tic SlIuCluIG DuTnCu Il lew lHO0ilS ago. |
showed signs of breaking away during the |
forenoon, and men were working upon it |
when, about 1870 P. NJ, gust unusually |
strong ripped it up, and two large pieces, |
rolled into punches, were hurled into the
street, and another large piece fell over the |
side of tie building and hung there Two |
men on the roof at the time did all they |
could to prevent the catastrophe, and only |
fgot out of the way in time. BY the prompt |
spreading of canvas the rain that fell was |
kept from the machinery, and, the upper
floor being tight, the water did not descend |
lower, and the damage done is not great,
beyond the cost of the roof
At the railroad works about sixty feet of |
the ventilator roof of the rolling mills was |
torn off, assembled into the air as though /
forced upward by an explosion, and fell |
upon the trees in the yard. Some of the |
other roofs of the works had to be looked |
to carefully.
The large ornamental piece surmounting
the front cornice of the Free Library build |
ing was blown off and fell upon the stair |
way leading from the sidewalk to the base |
ment, crushing the steps into kindling |
wood. Other damage was also done by the |
falling mass.
The front forty feet of the roof of the |
building 4l9 and 42l J street, occupied by |
Benz. Cohen as carpet store, the upper |
SlOlN DtlIS UStu as TeS1utflce, WAS also car |
ried away by the gale The water passed |
into the residence rooms, and accumulated |
TO a depth of about six inches on the floor. |
Mr.. Cohen and others assisted in removing |
the furniture, carpets, etc, into rear apart
ments and then attended to goods in the |
store. The store floor is double. but the |
water found its way into the basement
nevertheless and considerable stock was
injured.
The lofty smokestack at Warehouse &
Testers mill fell with a crash into the |
alley carrying away a small portion of the |
firewall, and doing some damage to asmall |
building upon which it fell. The mill was
not III operation, and consequently no in !
convenience of business nature resulted |
, a small house on Il street. between
Eighth and Ninth, occupied by Mrs. |
Keller, member of the Salvation Army.
and her children, four or five in number, |
was blown from the scantling upon which |
it was raised about five feet from the |
ground, and was almost wrecked No one |
was hurt, and goat, which was kept be- |
meath the building, also escaped uniniured. |
An old structure back of the st. George /
building belonging to William Cummings |
and occupied as stable. was tumbIed into |
ruins.
a stable on f street, near Nineteenth. be- |
longing to Mrs. G. Mangon, fell. covering q |
COW III lHe ueDIlS- Ne animal was eX- /
tricated Immediately afterwards by A. Fra |
zee and officer Frazee and son, and was |
found TO be pretty badly hurt.
The roof of the Synagogue, Sixth street. |
between and X, is reported to have en-
tirely blown off.
The upper portion of the front of Philip |
Phillips house, o street, between Fourth |
and Fifth was blown off
The roof of the Golden Eagle Hotel got |
started, and soon aportion of it would have |
been on an excursion but for the prompt |
work of mine host Bowers and his en- |
ployes
The Wooden Mill lost its smoke stack and |
part of a fence.
Among the fences blown down was that |
in front of Gribble Il Joseph's property. |
Second street, near |; Frank Millers high |
fence on Fifth street, near J. used by W. A. |
Caswell as a bulletin board George Har- |
veys fence, Thirteenth and G streets; fence |
at the Nineteenth and 2 streets school |
building; that at the German Lutheran |
Church; fence at William Boone's, Twen- |
tieth and G streets. This is but a small |
portion of the damage of that character |