Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1894-04-19
Al soora of I.ives Loaf.

A Score Of Lives Lost.
For two days last week the whole
Atlantic coast from Boston to Balti-
more was In the clutches OF the worst
storm since the never-to- be-forgotten
blizzard of 1883, and not only the
coast, but all the States north OF the
Carolinas and east of the Allegheny
Mountains, including the whole of
New York State, sucked in the icy
blasts and drew them as far as Buffalo.
1t was terrific strife OF the elements,
and did incalculable damage to life
and property throughout the most
densely populated part OF the country.
For twenty-four hours the winds of the
ocean rushed furiously past Sandy
Hook, up through He'll Gate, at the
rate Of sixty-nine miles an hour. This
would have been disagreeable and dan
gerous il the wind had no companions,
for such wind not only wrinkles the
sea and makes it turbulent and peril
Gus to ships and their burdens, but it
has power enough t. overturn build
ings, to uproot trees, and to play havoc
with the means of human communica-
tion. But the wind was not alone this
time. 1t was accompanied and assist
ed by snow and sleet, which made
it bitter cold. Together these three
swept the sea and the land, covering
the habitations of men with an icy
veil, heaping the earth high with a
blanket of snow, playing with mighty
vessels as children play with whitfield
boats, lifting them high on the crest
of a mighty wave and then plunging
them into an abyss of churning waters
and crushing them there: breaking
mems limbs and beating their lives
out against the jagged rocks, hurrying
through the streets of cities, as a
mountain torrent plunges boiling
through a narrow gorge, tearing down
telegraph poles as If they we; e tooth
picks, twisting thick and heavy wires
ike cotton thread, and withal roaring
and bowling in hideous triumph, like
the myriad devils of nightmare.
In some respects this storm was more
dreadful and disastrous than the bliz-
zard which paralyzed New York six
years ago. That was fercer, but 1t did
not diffuse itself over so great an area.
Thursday every foot of ground east of
Buffalo was covered with thirty inches
of snow, which had been falling for
more than twenty-four hours. Nearly
every telegraph and telephone wire in
New York, New Jersey, Maryland,
Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware
was torn down by the fury of the blast.
New York was practically isolated.
Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia and
Washington were in similar plight.
Terrible Work of the Storm.
The work of the storm along the
Jersey coast was something terrible.
tfrt na nf min
seas wrought havoc and destruction.
Buildings, trees, telegraph and tele-
phone wires, railway tracks, embank-
ments, wharves and fences all yielded
TO the destructive fury of the elements.
Above it all stands out the loss of
human life. Many vessels, large and
small, were wrecked. The crews of the
Sandy Hook, Souan and Long Branch
life-saving stations put out to the as
sistance of the disabled vessels as
soon as they were reported ashore,
but it was not known when the first
dispatches were sent out that single
life had been saved, as the furious sea
running and the binding snow pre-
vented any effective work upon the
part of the life-savers.
Atlantic City suffered considerably.
Waves dashed over the board walk,
was threatened with being carried out
to sea. Gen. Earl's hotel, says q dis
= patch, the Normandie-by-the-Se is
likely to be totally wrecked. At Cali
lee the ocean is undermining st. Peters
, Church, which the tide will also prob
ably bring down. In Morris, Bergen
and Warren counties roads were i'm
passable. Trains on railroads rum
ming into Jersey City and Hoboken
we're all delayed. The meadows
between Jersey City and Hoboken
and Newark are several inches
under water and nothing is visible ex-
cept telephone and telegraph poles.
AT Bayonne many boats and boat
houses were washed away. At South
,Amboy a partially erected house was
blown down, and at New Brunswick
electric light, telegraph and telephone
wires were levelei to the ground. In
calculable damage was done to the
fruit crops. The peach crop suffered
particularly, and 1t is feared that the
entire crop will prove failure.
Farmers throughout the State will be
heavy sufferers.
Wrecked on Milwaukee.
A little yawl boat, nine feet long,
drifted to the beach, several miles
north OF Milwaukee, bearing the un-
conscious form OF Capt. William B.
Wood, the only survivor OF the schooner
Island City. The other two men who
comprised the crew OF the lost boat were
undoubtedly drowned when the boat
went down. Capt. Wood was SO nearly
dead from exposure that 10 barely
managed TO crawl to farmhouse near
the shore and then became unconscious
again He arrived In the city in the
afternoon and told the story Of the loss
OF his boat.
Overflow Of News
A SEVERE anowaf0rm prevailed in