Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-11-03
The Hurricane on Mount Washington

The Hurricane on Mount Washington.
From the Springfield Republican.
The severe storm which swept along the
New England coast on Thursday passed
over Mount Washington with more than
usual force. Early Thursday morning a
northeast wind, accompanied with a heavy
fall of rain, set in, which increased rapid
ly. The morning train which reached the
summit a little after IL came near being
lifted from the track as it passed the Lizzie
Bourne monument, about one thousand feet
from the Summit House. and the wind con-
tinuing with even greater velocity, the con-
ductor wisely concluded not to make the
usual afternoon return trip. All the after
noon there was no abatement and the We
ioclty could not have been less than 100
miles an hour. and at times il must have
gone up to LIS. At sunset there came
change, and the wind shifted into the north
west AT 10 o'clock 1t began again 10 in.
crease. and soon afterward reached .s
great velocity as had prevailed from tbe
northeast during the day. There was less
ran OF rain. but the force of the wind stead
a! increased up to 2:S0 Friday morning. ar
which tiine 1t had assumed the aspects of
tornado There was a continuous 80.
SO oeaIenlnS at times that or3inarxr oo,,H'
Saion Was carried on with difficulty Aho,,,
CLOCK L was awakened by the I,;hra 80
Sna my oeu ana OF the furniture in the room
soon atterward the bricks of the chirnna,-
Which passes up through nv room b.ss,,
10 topple over and slide down the sfae,,
1 Tss 10 the rocks in the rear of the hotel
t,nas o aohns was kept up for some
lime when at last there came a tremen
oous crash: the entire chimney above tn
IeoI mao fallen upon the roof of the dor
S der WINDOW over my room. and dashed
downward to the rocks below
AS this sort of thing was becopirr
niue more exciting than usual, / went dow
to the hotel Office, and there found non,
w w 1He quests guests OF the house, including DR..
w. T. Prime of New York, and his sister.
ln-law. Mrs. Slosson of Hartford and H.
employees of the house, waiting for a tnrn
In the storm. With every gust the pressnra
Npu, .iIe mouse was something tremendous,
VOW ana then a pane of glass would give
way, with sharp report, as though a mis-
tol mad been fired in the room Knowiny
mat the house had been thoroughly boiled
together when built, II did NOT seem, 80
sible for II to give way under the ,raa,
strain, unless the windows were blown IN
The badly frightened guests were nlanning
an escape, and pleaded to be taken across
the platform to the Office of "Among tba
Clouds" the strongest building on the sum
nit, but this could not be done as N u,ouId
nave been impossible to stand upon the
now no record of the velocity OF the Mind
kept here, the weather station not hay,ino
been opened this season. but judging from
what L have experienced here before. when
record was Kept Ii could not have been
less than loo miles an hour. At no time In
my seventeen years experience on the sum
init or this mountain have i ever known
anything to compare with it. The hotel
building, which is nearly 200 feet long trem-
bled like leaf in a gale. The suspended
lamps swung back and forth Even the
lghtstands In the sleeping rooms Joined In
the prevailing custom and swayed back and
forth so as to make 1t almost impossible to
keep a lighted candle burning
While the velocity OF the wind is greater
here than that which has been recorded at
any weather station in this country or in
Europe, the pressure is much lighter than
at sea level. If ii was not, nothing could
stand in the great gales that sometimes
pass over this mountain. Mount Washing
ton is in the storm track Of the st. Law
renee valley. and all unusual velocities OF
wind sweeping from west to east are felt
places.