The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-07-29
A DELUGE!
Jersey City swalnped by
Last Nights Trop-
ical Rain Storm.
STREETS WERE RIVERS
Meadows and Vacant Lots
We're Seas Railway
Cuts, Torrents.
WIDESPREAD LOSS AND DAMAGE
Erie Tunnel Impossible and
Trains Stalled on Many
Lines.
TROLLEY OFF THE TRACK
Wet Lines Caused Death and In
jury from Vagrant Electric
Currents.
CEII,ARS ALL AFLOAT
CELLARS ALL AFLOAT
ouse Foundations Sapped, Pave
ments Caved In. macadam Scanned
and scored, Jets of Water Forced
from Sewer Manholes, and a Ferry

The heavens opened last night and
poured on the heads of the just and un-
just of Jersey City a flood as heavy, as
any which had fallen in years. Weather
sharps say that between four and ten
o'clock in the evening 20 inches fell,
which makes the total rainfall for the
month 963-100 inches. If this immense
lot of water. amounting, perhaps, TO four
millions of tons, were massed into solid,
volume and came sweeping down Mont
gomery street there wouldn't be single
building standing this morning.
The lowest temperature yesterday was
60 degrees. This was at four A. NJ, and
the mercurial drop was as low as on the
day previous; but whereas Tuesday was
the chilliest July 27 on record, there were
two other occasions since the Weather
Bureau was established when the record
of July Is was lower than it was yester-
day. These exceptions occurred in 1871
and 1882 when the thermometer descended
to S.
In this city the wind was at the rate of
ten miles an hour during most of the day.
AT Sandy Hook it was blowing at the rate
of AZ miles an hour Tuesday night, and at
the rate of Sc miles an hour yesterday
morning. On the southern New England
coast it averaged 40 miles an hour yester-
day, and along the New Jersey coast it
blew almost as hard. All the seashore
resorts were fiercely bombarded by the
high tides and great damage everywhere
was done Thousands of persons wit
messed these demonstrations of the ma
jesty of the elements and the destruc-
ton of the puny buiwarkS erected by
man to keep the ocean from overrunning
his domain.
There was also a heavy fog during the
afternoon along the Middle Atlantic and
Southern New England coasts. Because
OF stiff breeze in the morning the fog
did not amount to much at first, but it
grew thicker as the day advanced, and
fnally became so dense as to interfere
seriously with navigation. The wind had
been from the east for forty-eight hours.
Until it shifts warm weather Is not ex-
pected This shift, however, is looked
warm weather in the West, and the wes-
terly wind that is due this morning will
watt some of it this way before another
twenty-four hours have passed
The flods which rid such damage all
over Northers New Jersey yesterday have
somewhat receded today. In their wake
Is trail OF wrecked barns, ruined fields
OF crops, impaired railroad tracks and all
the traces of fuilhedged western deluge.
At Elizabeth, which Jared worst of ALL
the waters which filed the streets to a
depth In some places of, eight feet began
to ebb in the early morning. The night
had been one of anxiety for the results
The city's electric light plant had been
inundated, the trolley cars stopped, and
tton to the drier and higher surrounding
country had been cut off. The frightened
inhabitants of Elizabeth imagined the
danger even greater that it really was,
and unfounded rumors spread that the
reservoir had burst. In the darkness the
water filed streets with their hotillas of
almost to justify the rumor. But when
the day dawned 1t was found that the
damage was due simply to the over
flowing of the Elizabeth river and the
u fr11 for tn hot ell
Gradually, as the day grew older, paches
of muddy street began to show them
selevs. and it was possible to walk on one
side of Broad street, the principal
thoroughfare in the city.
All the Broad street merchants suffered
severe losses. On Price street the Eliza
undermining foundations and running
goods stored in Easements and first floors.
The Suburban ELECTRIC Light Company s
Crawford and Westfield, was flooded and
all through the night these places were
in complete darkness 1t was not until
could be procured In the northern part of
Elizabeth, as the pumping station of the
Eizabethtown Sd,d Water M Sompandy and had been been
had been fire, the results might have
been disastrous. The employees of the r.
r. Worthington Pump Company had hard
wol ks. The damage sustained by this
firm alone is estimated at s15, 600. Lumber
IlfluS OH tne Ddlths "a f9idltii 1Slditu OOuIiu
lost much of their stock. The Crescent
Ship Yards were flooded, but no very
serious damage done. Gangs Of men were
early on hand to repair the damage to
the Pennsylvania and Jersey Central
Rrailroad tracks An approximate esti-
mate of the losses through the food at
Elizabeth will not be obtainable for some
little time, but it is admitted that it was
the worst deluge ever seen in these parts
and that it will prove very costly
At Washingtonville. near Plainfeld, the
citizens scarcely slept a wink through
ths night for fear the large dam owned
by the Plainfeid Ice and Cold Storage
Company would burst. This apprehension
was not without grounds, for large
crack in the dam was discovered and had
not a large gang of men started to work
to mend it without delay. Washingtonyille
might be under water today instead of
fairly well flooded. Greenbrook, which
became surging torrent, and today sew
eral bridges which yesterday spanned it
have been washed few miles away from
their original Sites Small buildings
which stood by the banks of Greenbrook
were also demolished.
Bound Brook suffered more from scare
than Hoods. Many inhabitants, fearing a