St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-07-28
SWEPT BY A STORM,
The EARLY Morning Cloud
Burst Creates Havoc
About st. Paul.
Electric Lines Suspended by
Serious Damage to the
Power House.
Railway Terminal Badly
Hampered by Several
Land Slides.
One Fatality at the West
One Fatality at the West
Side and Several Acct
dents Elsewhere.

The storms of Tuesday night and yes
terday morning at st. Panl and the
vicinity will 90 on record as the most
severe ever experienced in this section
of the country.
The elements in a few short minutes
wrought and amount of damage which
will be reckOned by thousands of dol
lars, and one life has been sacrificed.
Sergeant Lyons, of the United States
weather bureau, stated yesterday
afternoon that the heavy down
pour of rain had for its center
the Twin Cities, and that its
radius was about forty miles. At La
Crosse no rain fell. neither at Huron
Ror Moorhead, while in Duluth only a
few drops were discharged from the
clouds. The records of the weather bu
reau do not contain an instance where
so much rain fell in short time. Dur
ing the heavy downpour of Tuesday
night the the instruments at the office
of the signal service recorded rainfall
Of 4.90 inches, and for the twenty-four
hours ending a. m. yesterday. total
of 56S inches in st. Paul. The Flour
City received even heavier drenching,
7.S0 inches ill the same time. These
figures Outtop anything in the history
of the bureau for the whole country.
White Bear lake was raised five inches
by thefood, Lake Como fourteen inches,
and Lake MlnnetOnka is nearly ten
inches higher.
The damage wrought during the storm
was entirely caused by the deluge of
water, but few mishaps being occa-
stoned by the electric fluid, which rent
the mass of black clouds in angry and
continuous vivid flashes.
The Brewery Collapse.
The most serious accident in the city
occurred on the West side about 80
yesterday morning, all account of which
appeared in special edition of the
GLOBE soon after the disaster. A two
story frame building used as cooler by
Bruggemau'S brewery, and also as a
sleeping apartment by some of the EN-.
ployeS, collapsed while the storm was
at its height and buried the unfortunate
Gated on the side OF the bluff, and
the heavy torrent of rain pour
Ing from the higher ground
saturated the sandy foundation on
which the building stood. The crash of
the falling building was heard for
blocks over the roaring of the storm.
and willing hands were soon at work to
rescue the poor fellows buried beneath
the mass of timber. The fire and police
with the volunteers, worked with will
to remove the debris. At in the morn
ing, after continuous toll, Frank Brug-
geman and Al LobbS, who were
asleep in the building when it
fell. were rescued. and, strange
to say, were uninjured beyond
few bruises and decorations.
1t was not until 10 O'Clock that the
Tescuing party uncovered the body of
w. +. Schaefer, the third man who was
asleep in the building. The heavy tim
Ders had buried his body in the soft
sand, and the poor fellows remains
were crushed in Il terrible manner. The
skull was fractured, the chest crushed
in, and the limbs mangled. The re-
mains were removed to Volk's under
taking rooms by order of Deputy
was forty-two years old and unmar-
ried. and had been employed at the
brewery for four years.
Lobbs, who received a number of
severe cuts OIL the face and body, was
taken to the city hospital, and the doc
tors reported his injuries as not being
serious. and he will probably recover in
q few days.
The above was the only case where
loss of life was caused by the storm. but
the instances OF waShouts. flood and
landSideS were most numerous and
occurred in all barts of the city.
Electric Car Suspension.
Great discomfort was caused by the
total suspension of the electric car Serv-
ice yesterday in the city, owing to the
power house on Washington street be-
ing flooded by a cave-in of the roof
shortly before midnight on Tuesday.
The costly machinery was severely
damaged, and the apparatus rendered
useless. The result was that cars were
stalled in all parts of the city and re-
manned SO during the whole Of
yesterday. One carload of pas
sengers on the interurban line spent
the night on the car, as it was
impossible to wade through the heavy
wet sand and earth into the city. They
reached st. Paul soon after daylight, a
sorry-looking crowd. The service be-
tween the two cities was the only one
carried on yesterday. and the big mo-
tors were unable to move faster than
walking pace, owing to the weakness of
the current, which was supplied from
Minneapolis. They were unable in
many cases to asceud the grade OH
Eighth street, and passengers were
obliged to get off and allow the car to
run up the hill empty. The company
hope TO have the damage to the power
house repaired by this morning, and re-
sumo the regular service.
If even the electric current had not
been shut OFF, the cais in many instances
would have done little work. owing to
the flooding Of the tracks with quanti-
hes of sand and waShouts.
Tile West Side
suffered very severely, owing to the
number of streets graded through high
bluffs. The water poured from the
high ground. washing earth and sand
into the streets, converting them into
Foaming tori ents for a time. On Con-
cord street the sand and mud was piled
up yesterday morning from three to five
feet high, while South Wabasha
street for a distance was veri-
table river. Many houses built
on the entertainments are in danger,
owing to the soil beneath being washed
away. Street after street is simply a
pile of mud and sand. and the loss tc
the city will be heavy, as most of the
grading was only recently finished, and
the work will have to be done ovel
again.
On the east side of the river the dam
age to streets was also very heavy. On
the Selby avenue extension there was g
heavy washout, causing suspension OF
trade, as the big ditch was filled with
water.
On University avenue the food
played havoc. AT ChatsWOrth street
4 Miniature Lake