The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-12-05
STORM SPREADS TERROR
Death and Destruction Fol-
low in It's Path in
Jersey City.
ALMOST 4 PANIC At CITY HOSPITAL
Buildings Rock, Carpenter
Shop Collapses and Chin
ney of Woman's Wing
Blown Down.
ALMOST 4 PANIC At CITY HOSPITAL

Ab
The wind storm last night spread terror
throughout this city. Buildings We're
utterly destroyed. trees were blown down
by the score and untold damage was done
ia buildings throughout the city. No
person who could do otherwise ventured
from the house. The city felt the fun
fury of the storm and the streets were
not safe to travel in. Even in the lower
or business part of the city, WHICH p
built up on every side, buildings were
damaged. At the junction OF NeWdrh
avenue and Montgomery street, one Of
the busiest spots in the city, the roolsol
a three-story frame building that has
stood there for years, was blown OH iht2
Montgomery street. A huge SIGH useo
for theatrical advertising, was also down
into the street. 1t was almost a miracle
that no one was passing at the time me
roof fell across the sidewalk with a crash
that could be heard for several plochs'
The police from the Gregory street station
were sent to the scene, as it was thought
at first that some person might have been
crushed beneath the debris. Small signs
and glass show cases were blown down
on all the business thoroughfares.
The greatest damage by the storm,
however. was not done in the business
section Of the city, but on the Heights. 1t
was truly a night of terror to the inmates
OF the City Hospital. The hospital Dulia-
ings are situated on Baldwin avenue, near
Montgomery street, at the highest point
on the Jersey City Heights. The build
ings are exposed to the full force of the
wind. They overlook the New York
Harbor and lower Jersey City. They were
exposed last night to all the fury OF the
terrible wind that came from the north
east. Early in the evening the wind
made the window casing rattle and caused
the patients some apprehension. The cur
stains were tightly drawn and the nurses
did what they could to reassure the sick
ones. AS the storm heightened the build
ings themselves We're rocked by the gale.
There is not a brick building on the
ground. AT times it seemed as II the
frame structures would not stand before
the fury of the wind that was blowing
almost a hurricane. Long before the
storm had reached its height several trees
on the hospital grounds were destroyed.
Each tree as it fell crashing to the ground
could be heard by the invalids and sent
fresh terror to their hearts.
That was not the worst that was to be-
fan them, however. The storm had
reached its height when suddenly there
was the sound of rending timbers. a
mighty roar of the wind, a terrible crash
and the carpenter shop, that adjoined the
female ward, was a mass of ruins. The
nurses and doctors had all they could do
to calm the fears of the terror stricken
women. The men in the other building
were also badly frightened. The nurses
were doing their best to quiet the women
wh2n there was another crash on the
roof of the female ward itself and the big
chimney was carried way Such a night
was never before spent within the walls
of the hospital building.
Three unfinished buildings in various
parts of the city were utterly destroyed.
They were located as follows:-Garrison
and Pavonia avenues, Boulevard near
Tonnele avenue, Garfield avenue near Van
Nostrand place.
The fierce, gale left traces of its un-
pleasant visit in the way of damaged
houses, sheds and trees in the Greenvi1ie
section. A partly built new house on Van
Nostrand place, near Ocean avenue, blew
down about nine O'Clock. The wrecked
building fell directly across the street,
completely blocking that t~horoughfare.
The damaged house is two stories high,
but the roof had not been placed thereon.
Mr.. Rhode, the carpenter, will try to have
the building reset upon the foundation.
A huge tree at Carteret and Randolph
avenues blew down last evening, but no
damage was done. The street was blocked
for d short time. A small house at Clerk
and Forrest streets also suffered from the
gale, as the entire tin roof was blown off.
Many of the streets in the lower section
of the city, which were practically i'm
passable on Saturday, are clean today.
Yesterdays heavy rainstorm swept the
snow away with pleasing rapidity. The
streets are SO open that Street Contrac-
tor Henry Byrne will be ordered to start
work sweeping in a day or two.
The storm cut up some pranks in the
Horseshoe The wind smashed the big
plate glass window, fronting on both
Grove and Seventh streets, of Michael
McMahons saloon. 1t tore a few slate
shingles from the United States Express
Companyss stables at Eighth and Hem
derson streets, and blew off the scuttle of
the Seventh Street Police Station. landing
1t in a neighboring yard. Hamilton Park
looked as though it had been swept by a
cyclone. 1t was strewn with broken
branches. Only the trunks and a few
broken ranch of several of the trees
were left standing.
On the Hill a big window was blown in
in the rear of Percy Gaddis' real estate
office, No. 55S Newark avenue. A
A big sign board owned by J. r.
OsMealia was blown from the roof, No.
$50 Newark avenue, and fell on the side
walk.
Up in the Hudson City section the big
window in front of a newspaper branch
office at Palisade avenue and Ferry street
was wrecked. The fence adjoining Hen
kefs Casino was also blown down.
The wind blew a portion of the France
work from the new wing of Christ Hos
pitaa, but the damage was slight.
In Newark, Mrs. Samuel Eldridge. sixty
years old, died Of exhaustion while trying
to get from the house Of a friend to a
railroad station.