The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1896-08-07
NINETEEN LIVES LOST
DEATH BY FLOOD AND
WIND.

-Four Persons Crushed to Death-Fifteen
Miners Drowned by the Sweepin. Away
OF Their Boarding Housc-Twelvcr Per-
sons Shocked by Lightning.
PlTTsBURa, Pa, July 29.-Nineteel
lives were lost in and about this CITY
fifteen at Cecil, Washington county,
where a miners boarding house was
washed away-thirty-five persons
were injured more or less seriously,
several possibly fatally, several build
ings we're demolished, eight or ten
churches and many other structures
damaged and telegraph, telephone
and electric light poles and wires
wrecked by three fierce wind, rain
and electric storms which swept over
this section yesterday afternoon and
last night. The losses are placed at
Sloo, 600. There seems to have been
unions of two storms from opposite
directions.
At the camp Of the Eighth Ward
Bunting club of Allegheny City, four
miles up the river, trees we're up
rooted and q huge sycamore fell on
the tent, killing John Figus and
George Miller and badly hurting Eve
other men. In this city two persons
were killed by flying debris and sew
eral hurt.
In Allegheny City twelve persons
were shocked by lightning. Abner
Hays, freight receiver OF the Fort
Wayne railroad, was sitting in his
house door when lightning knocked
him unconscious, possibly fatally in
juring him. A. M. Bennett and his
children were standing on their porch
when a flash was conducted from q
trolley wire IN front of the house,
P~rostrating the entire party. August
snedez and family were sitting at
supper when lightning struck the
the dining room. About half an hour
later a neighbor found the whole fam
lily lying on the floor in an uncon-
scious condition. They may w
but it is improbable.
The approach Of the storm was her.
aided by black clouds that turned day-
light into darkness. There was a con-
slant roll of fierce thunder and 1nces.
SAINT flashes of vivid lightning. The
wind rose to 9 gale as the rain began
to fall, and then the hurricance came
With a roar, driving the rain in solid
sheets before it. In an instant tho
streets in many parts Of the city were
nlled with flying branches of trees,
TIN roofs were lifted from houses aud
sent whirling over chimney tops,
knocking them down like tenpins, and
stgns and fences and trees fell. For q
little over a minute the hurricane
plew at the rate of thirty miles an
hour. then decreased to twenty-four
miles for five minutes and then ceased.
The thunder and Zig htnirg. however,
kept up a terrifying display while the
rain continued to pour down for an
hour.
An hour after the first storm ended
q second began, but tho force of it
seemed to be in the country districts
back Of the South Side hills, and the
reports Gaming in at a late hour con
tanned the information that much
damage had been done by the light
ming and by an exceptionally heavy
%downpour of rain. This storm crossed
Silver lake and the dam, unable to
stand the strain of the flood behind it,
gave way, turning Finley's hollow
Into a raging torrent and swelling
Eegley's run into q river until it emp
tied into the Allegheny near the Bril-
liant pumping station.
At Braddock hail added to the dam
age and whom the hurricane reached
Turtle creek it assumed the proper
tions of q tornado, doing great dam
age. In the oil fields derricks were
blown down, particularly in O'Hara
township. Sewickley, Coraopolis,
Bellevue and McKee's Rocks suffered
severely. In Millvale and SharpsburR
hail caused havoc aud glaciers will be
busy for some days.
Colonel Frank Ridgeway, the local
forecast official, vas at his desk when
the first storm cloud darkened the
sky. he said last night that he had
never seen a more perfect tornado
formation in the clouds and that the
city was not visited with a ruinous
tornado was due to the intervening
bulls. 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 a third storm swept
over the city. during which torrents
ct rain fell, while the wind blew a
gale, but no serious damage resulted.
From 8 o'clock until midnight rs inch
of rain fell. making a total of 1.42
inches.
FIFTEEN MINERS SWEPT TO DEATH.
L H~~S1 aG