The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-07-25
AN ELECTRIC STORM.
Death and Destruction Visit a
Pennsylvania Town.
A Number of Persons Instantly
Killed by Lightning.

An electric storm, more violent and de-
structive than has been seen in the Lacka-
wanna Valley for more than quarter Of a
century, swept over Scranton, Penn, be-
tween 2 and o'clock the other afternoon.
There were frightful flashes Of lightning and
simultaneous crashes of thunder for
half an hour, and a perfect gale OF wind,
hailstones as large as thimbles, and an un.
precedented rainfall were other features
of the great storm. 1t was formed in the
open and comparatively level country west
Of Bald Mount and it swept down into
the Lackawanna valley from the
northwest. As it struck the
notch through which Leggatt's Creek runs
it became compressed and concentrated, and
when it got into the valley, short distance
northwest of the Providence section OF
Scranton, it spread out and carried terror,
death and destruction before it.
The lightning killed little girl in door
way, and slightly damaged three buildings.
A small ball Of fire entering the open door OF
q store on Main avenue, burned of the tele.
phone wire in the rear Of the building, but
did no other damage.
Before any rain had fallen John Armstrong,
aged 81 "a Delaware, ,LackawaIia and Western
brakeman, stood on top of a freight car op.
posite the Eackawanna Iron and Coal Com
pany'S store on Lackawanna avenue, at few
yards from the company's blast fur
naces A binding flash and a terrific
peal Of thunder at the same instant, that
made the men in the store and around the
furnaces quail, killed Armstrong. The bolt
hit him squarely on top Of the head, came
out under the chin, ripped and tore his
clothing, shattered his boots, and left
him dead on tor Of the car. A man
underneath the car was stunned, and
the men in the furnaces were disagreeably
affected, but the car was not damaged. In
the store across the street young man
walked up to the telephone just as the flash
came, and streak of fire darted out of the
cracking instrument and singed one side Of
his whiskers.
Bartholomew Reagan, aged 10, was driv-
ing team on Shanty Hill in the midst
of the binding storm. A bolt of
lightning struck him on the breast and
left purple leaf-shaped spot there, and
leg, rending his clothing and tearing his shoe
off. He was killed instantly. Both of the
horses were felled to the ground by the bolt
The off one was killed, and the shoes were
torn from the hind feet Of the near one.
Robert Dyrone, a farm hand in the employ
of A J. Stone, about one mile from Clark's
Green, was working in a fed when the
storm came up. He ran under large maple
tree when it began to rain. The tree was
struck by lightning and split in two, and
house near by saw the bolt descend. Dyrone
was ~ years old.
Lightning also struck the German Presby-
terian Church spire on Hickory street and
shattered it. A pile Of pig-iron in the
Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company's yard
was tumbled about by another bolt, and
several trees on the mountain south of
the city were shivere1. Down in the valley,
where the Edison 1ncandescent Light Com
pany hasits generating works, electricity was
thick during the storm. 1t rushed into the
building on some Of the wires and demag-
netized the dynamos, and the consequence
was that the lights on one of the circuits did
not shine that night
After it had rained and hailed for fifteen
or twenty minutes, the wind suddenly
whirled from the northwest to the southeast,
and the terrifying gale and flood that
followed led people to believe that
two storms had come together
from opposite directions. The wind
drove the torrents Of water through win
dow castings that had never leaked be-
fore, and the air was so full of water that
seeing for more than quarter of block
was an impossibility. Hen-coops, out
houses and rubbish of all kinds foated down
toward the Lackawanna from the heights
damage was done to cellars, roads, and side
walks by the food. The rooms in the upper
part of town were filled and clogged with
sand and gravel, causing them to overflow,
and big volume of water came into the
Fairlawn mine< After the storm myriads
of very small toads covered the country in
its track.