New-York tribune., 1897-08-19
4 TORNADO PLAYS HAVOC.
1T STARTS THREE WATER SPOUTS AND
STRIKES NEAR VALLEY STREAM.
HOTEL. WITH ITS FOUR OCCUPANTS LIFTED
FROM ITS FOUNDATIONS AND HURLED
SEVERAL FEET - wRECKAGE IN
THE PATH OF THE STORM.

THE PATH OF THE STORM.
A tornado struck halfmile east Of the VII
lage Of Valley Stream. Long Island. yesterday
afternoon and wrought considerable damage.
A hotel was almost totally wrecked, the upper
part Of another building carried away. big
trees were dragged from the earth and scattered
long distances. part of a big wagonshed disap-
peared. and a horse was lifted into the air ana
carried a considerable distance.
The tornado started at about 3:2o o'clock. near
the steamboat dock at Seaside Rockaway
Beach. There were three distinct waterspouts
within a few minutes Of each other in Jamaica
Bay. One formed near the steamboat dock ana
was the largest and most severe. The others
confined themselves to the bay The water or
the largest one was carried in pillar across
Rockaway Point, and then continued on across
the bay and the swamp lands. sucking water
from the bay. This went to pieces short dis
tance from the railroad trestle and re-
markable sight. Before it broke the water had
been sucked into the air to the distance Of two
hundred feet according to the estimates made
by some of the witnesses, and to half that dis
tance according to others. Those who give the
smaller distance say that above the water there
was a cloud forming. and that this was what
led the others astray. The base of the spout
was about acre in extent.
The hotel building which wrecked be-
longed to Herman Bohmlen. He is at present
In Germany. It was leased by Charles Noble
With him lived his wife and four children, and
his mother Mrs. Mary Huntington. The hotel
was frame structure two and a half stories
high and was about 100 by - feet 1t faced
the Hampstead Road and Franklin-ave There
only four persons in the hotel when the
wind struck it. They were Mr.. Noble his
mother, one Of his children and man named
Mott, with whom Mr. Noble was bargaining for
the purchase Of horse. The men sat in the
barroom. and were in the act Of drawing up the
papers for the transfer of the animal Mrs
Huntington in the kitchen and the child
was with her. The first they knew Of the storm
when they heard the Of the wind.
The storm struck the building on the west eX.
posure. The first caper Of the wind was to tear
the piazza from its resting place and lift IT into
the air 1t was lifted almost whole straight up
and over the roof Of the hotel, and then dropped
a mass of wreckage on the east side Of the build
ing Then the hotel lifted from its brick
foundation and blown fourteen feet from its old
base.
The wrenching the building received tore al
most every particle of plaster from the walls
and buried the furniture under heaps of lime
and mortar Mr.. Noble says that everything
became black, there was a terrible CRASH, anu
then it appeared though the floor under his
feet was rising and falling. Mott fell 10 the
floor and lay there. When the building. with
many creaks and groans from the strainng tim
bers at last became stationary. both men rushed
from the building.
Mrs Huntington. who in the pantry, re-
ceivad two severe scalp wounds. heavy iron
pot was thrown from its fastenings and cut her
scalp badly. The child was thrown from the
chair on which 1t was sitting and fell on the
floor Both woman and child were covered with
plaster The woman carried TO the house
of Richard Abrams.
The horse for which Mott and Noble were bar
gaining stood in the wagonshed. The shed was
picked up by the wind and carried fifty yards
and then wrecked. portion Of it could not be
found last night, and is supposed to have been
sucked into the vortex and carried into the air.
The horse and wagon were lifted into the air
and then dropped to the ground fifty feet from
where they had been standing. The wagon was
demolished and the horse injured internally.
There landed against the side of the hotel dur
ing the storm a cherry tree Of good size. 1t mad
been pulled from the ground, roots and all
Every bit Of earth was washed from the roots
bv the twisting the tree received in the cloud.
and most of the leaves were stripped from the
branches The tree landed with the limbs down
and the roots sticking up in the air and leaning
against the wrecked hotel The house of Her
man Wichem to the east OF the hotel was also a
wreck Many trees and fences were wrecked.