Evening star., 1896-07-28

! thunder and incessant flashes of vivid
| lightning gave warning to pedestrians to
seek places of safety. The wind rose to
| gale as the rain began to fall, and then the
| hurricance came on with a roar, driving the
rain In solid sheets before 1t. In an instant
| the streets in many parts of the city were
| filled with flying branches OF trees roofs
| were lifted from houses and sent whirling
| over chimney tops, knocking them down
| like ten pins, signs and fences and trees
| fell crushing out the lives of two men and
injuring others.
For little over a minute the hurricane
blew at the rate of thirty miles an hour
| and then decreased to twenty-four miles for
five minutes, and ceased. The thunder and
| lightning. however, kept up a terrifying dis
play, while the rain continued to pour down
for an hour.
In the Country.
| After an hour of low murmurine thunder
| and sheet lightning the storm broke out
| again. but the force Of it seemed to be in
the country districts back Of the south side
| hills and reports coming in at late hour
| contained the information that much dam
age had been done by lightning and an ex-
ceptionally heavy downpour of rain This
storm crossed Silver lake, and the DAM un-
| able to stand the strain of the flood behind
| 1t. gave way, turning F'inley's Hollow into
| a raging torrent and swelling Negley's run
| into q river until 1t emptied into the Allie
| gheny near the Brilliant pumping station.
At Braddock hail added to the damage
| and when the hurricane reached Turtle
| creek 1t assumed the awful proportions of
cyclone, doing untold damage. In the
| Oil fields derricks were blown down. par
ticularly in o'Hara township: sewiekley,
| Coraopolis, Bellevue and McKee's Rocks
suffered severely. In Millvale and Sharps-
| burg hail caused havoc and glaciers will
! be busy for several days.
| Saved by the Hills.
Col Frank Ridgway. the local forecast
| official, was at his desk when the first
| storm cloud darkened the sky. He said
| last night that he had never seen a more
| perfect cyclone formation in the clouds
and that the city was not visited with a
| cyclone worse than that which caused the
ST. Louis horror is due to the intervening
| hills. The circular movement of the wind
| was broken in the lower strata, or else
| there would have been a path plowed
| through the two cities several blocks wide.
In the evening another storm swept over
| the city, during which torrents of rain fell.
! while the wind blew gale, but no serious
| damage resulted. From o'clock until mid
| night rs inch of rain fell making total of
| 1.42 inches. The storm died in long-con-
| tinued rumblng, that rolled through the
| heavens with the noise u distant cannon
| aiding, the lightning, meanwhile. illuminat-
| ing the sky with incessant flashes Of blush,
| glaring light. 1t was not until midnight
| hour that the storm ceased.
Damage to Property.
The damage to property was general and
various. The wind mroofed dozens Of
houses, while others were damaged by tie
| water washing their foundations away.
Sttu others were struck by lightning. The
| traction lines, as usual, were compelled to
suspend operations. Great heaps of dirt
and debris from the previous foods, piled
rear the tracks, were washed down again.
and the only lines which escaped serious
delays were those en- the south side.
In the Penn avenue mtH district two
large smoke and draft stacks were blown
down, buildings were uhroofed, trees were
uprooted, and scarcely q house ia the dis
trict passed through the storm intact But
lerest got a repetition of the storm of July
15 and persons who suffered property loss
on that occasion had the same experience
yesterday. The east end got its first hard
touches of the year Trees and telegraph
poles went down under the wind. Fences
and outbuildings were destroyed, and large
buildings suffered the loss of roofs and win
dows.
Brushton and Williamsburg suffered to a
considerable extent, but not badly as
the districts nearer the rivers.
The I'd avenue. 5th avenue and Hill dis
tricts got the full fury Of the storm, and
the damage is general and widespread.
Windows. trees and small structures were
destroyed. Many houses were unroofed.
and it Is remarkable that there were not
more persons seriously injured.
Wires Disabled.
The telegraph and telephone systems of
the two cities were badly damaged. All the
police and fire alarm wires were wrecked
to greater or less extent, but by dint of
hard work during the night they have been
put in fair shape again. The c. D. and P.
Telegraph Company suffered greatly AL
most half the telephone lines in Allegheny
county were out of order last night, and
strenuous efforts are being made to repair
the damage.
At o'clock an. it was estimated that
700 lines were still out of order. The West
ern Union and the Postal Telegraph COM
panies suffered much damage but by hard
work enough lines were kept open to handle
pressing business
The electric light and street railway wires
were badly disordered by the wind. and
were crossed and recrossed with other lines
until linemen got them Strengthened out
All the railroads suffered heavily from
iEandsi1des; but the through lines are all
little delay. The CHARTERS railroad is
blocked at Cannonsburg by the washing
away OF bridge, and the Pittsburg, Vir-
aa glnia and Charleston road is impossible
peyond Monongahela City. The southwest
branch OF the Pennsylvania railroad is also
tied up by washouts and slides, but the Off
c1als hope to have trains running within q
few hours.
Another Drowned.
VIM Rose. Swedish gardener, aged fif-
y years, was drowned near Boston, Pa,
ats o'clock this morning while attempting
to ford Long run. His body was recovered
In the Ohio river three hours later at Ava
lon twenty-eight miles from Boston This
makes eighteen deaths SO Tar reported
"A Chicago dispatch says: Col w. P.
Rend was confident today that the loss of
lie by the flood near Cecil, Pa, was not
among his employees. He has no Italians
working for him, and does not recognize
any OF the Eames of others mentioned as
ever having been on hrs pay rolls He
tnlnks the victims were probably employed
py the Pittsburg and Cleveland Coal Com
pany.
Seven Bodies Rec0vered.
Later-A dispatch from Cecil, Pa, at noon
says seven bodies have been recovered and
eight are still missing.
Inc unfortunates were not all foreigners.
as at first reported. Among the bodies that
nave peen recovered were those of Higgins
Wnklnson, Mrs. Mckinney, the keeper of
the boarding house; james McKenney, a
son, Jennie Holmes, a domestic, and an un-
known OIL man. The water rose twenty feet
In few minutes.
THE COLORADO DISASTER.