The Portland daily press., 1893-02-21
THE STORM.
The Centre of 1t Passed Directly Over
Portland--A Heavy Fall OF snow
and Regular Blizzard.

u StIdlS5ilU-dWoy IdCo dSdiHoo eilio, Duo
rather whirling motion like that of wa
ter in an eddy or whirlpool. In every
whirlpool there is always centre around
which the circular motion takes place.
In water the effect of this whirling mo-
ton il to draw the water out of this CEN
tire and leave void place, or place
filed with foam or other lighter forms Of
water. Just so in the case of storm
the effect of the whirling motion OF the
atmosphere is to leave in the centre
small undisturbed area where there IS
scarcely breeze, and where the condl-
ton of the air is far different from that
of the great whirlwind just outside the
centre.
It is not often that one of the great
whirling storms passes directly over
Portland. They generally pass to the
north or the south of us, and we get on
ly portion of their outskirts. But yes
terday's storm passed fairly over us. 1t
started in Michigan Sunday morning, and
travelled east so rapidly that its centre
was in northern New York Sunday eve
ming.
Just at that time we began to get the
outer rim of the great whirling wheel OF
air. Take a map of New England and
draw the circle of the storm and you
will find that it was whirling from left to
right, or the reverse of the motions on
the face of clock. So it happened that
the wind began to blow southeast when
the storm first appeared, and continued
to blow so until the storm centre ar
rived. That centre arrived yesterday
morning., when we had calm, with
cessation of snow. The storm seemed to
be over, but the observers at the signal
station knew better. Their barometer
showed a fall of over half an inch, which
meant that we were in the storm centre
and that all around us, to the north,
south, east and west, the high winds and
whirling SHOWS were vexing the earth.
Continually moving eastward, this storm
centre had passed over us before noon.
and soon we began to feel the other edge
of the whirlwind.
Portland got the full force of the storm
and good one it was. With it we got
also the assurance that cold wave was
coming, and that the mercury would fall
to the zero mark.
The mercury fell rapidly in the after
noon and the stars appeared in the even
ing.
The electric cars ran with little diff
Guilty as far as Deering.
The horse cars put on four horses.
In the Harbor.
From noon until near the end of day
light the harbor presented great blow.
The air was so full of snow and the
wind was blowing such a gale that it
was as much as one could do to stand at
the end of any of the wharves and keep
his position unless he had a building to
lean against. For a long time one could
hardly see more than few feet beyond
him so thick was it. The life saving sta
ton at the Cape reported bowling
storm but no damage.
Several vessels had a hard time. The
tugs went out to bring them in, and did
get several. One was the Talofa, with
coal, from Norfolk. She reported that
the Grace Buchanan, also loaded with
coal, and hailing from the same port, twas
in company with her yesterday, but
must have been blown out to sea.
The schooner Town, Capt. Young,
from Machias for Boston with general
cargo, was between Sequine and Boston
lodges, where in the fierce gale she
sprung her main mast. The vessel
couldn't carry sail enough to tack and
hoist ware ship. Capt. Young at one time
thought he should surely lose his vessel.
The schooner E. L. Warren, with ce-
ment for Boston, managed to get into
this port with her main boom broken.
The schooner Contest had her sails
blown away and drifted out to sea but
the tugs went after her and brought her
in.
The VIM. K. Park came in after quite
hard experience.
The barkentine Anton Berwind from
Philadelphia with coal, got off the port,
but the stormy gale blew her out to sea
again.
| The Gertie May, owned by Lyman,
| Son & Co., has been wrecked at st.
Mary's, Newfoundland. She is fishing
schooner of one hundred tons, and is
partially insured. A despatch ANNOUNCE
ing the loss was received by the firm yes
terday. The crew were saved.
| The Merryconeag started on her latter
noon trip, but returned on account of
the bad weather.
| The Railroads.
| The railroads had a hard time as the
wind blew the snow into the tracks. The
noon trains on the Boston & Maine,
I. Western division, were one hour, and
/ Eastern division 45 minutes late.
Tho Mo;uo Captral noon trains warn