The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-07-03
THE TORRID WAVE
YESTERDAY NEW YORK's WORST
DAY OF THE SERIES.
SUFFERING UNPRECEDENTED.
THE AMBULANCES KEPT GOING AND
HOSPITALS ovERCROWDED.

Thunderstorm, with Wind, Rain
and Hail. Was JoyfuIIy Welcomed
i'm the Afternoon and Gave Some
ReIief-New York's Death List 155
and PhiIadeIphia's 52-Other Cities
Reported High Temperatures and
Thunderstorms-AnO Low Pres
sure Moving in From the West.
New York, July 2.-The heat which has
worked such havoc in this city since
last Saturday, was somewhat mitigated
late this afternoon by a succession of
thunderstorms. which cleared the atmos-
phere, and sent the mercury tumbling
down ten degrees between the hours of
4:SO and s p. m. Never did a downpour
of rain receive such an enthusiastic re-
ception as did this one. The thunder and
were struck, causing fires, but so far as
known no person was killed or injured
During the last downpour hail fell in
quantities.
AS the furious wind blew across Bat
terry Park, it seemed to gain more energy
as it entered Bowling Green, and the mar
row part of lower Broadway
In spite of all the rain there was little
sign of it on the streets three hours after
it fell
1t was the hottest July in the history
of the local weather bureau, and a day
that almost reached the city's record Of
Sept. Z, 1881. The morning opened with
the temperature at SO at a. M, and in
an hour it had gone to 81, and in another
hour, had climbed a point higher, jump
ing all the way TO 90 by 9 o'clock. The
wind was scarcely perceptible and the
humidity which was 50 per cent, aggra-
waited the conditions.
Then the mercury kept on climbing, reg
istering % at 10 O'Clock and going up "a
point an hour until it reached 9S, in the
hour between u and 1 o'clock, and stayed
there until after o'clock, the little eight
niles-an-hour breeze meanwhile dwin-
ding to an absolutely imperceptible move
ment of the air. that could be deter
mined only by instruments that recorded
a velocity of six miles an hour. The hu-
midity, however, had fallen to Al per cent.
The Terrible Fatality.
The suffering caused by the heat was
unprecedented. All the ambulances in
the city, as well as the patrol wagons,
and many other vehicles were kept busy
answering calls At the rate of about one
a minute the Calls came in over the po-
lice wires throughout the day. breaking
all records of demands upon the ambu-
lance service and providing patients
enough to crowd all the hospitals of the
city as they have never before been
crowded. While the official temperature
up in the lofty tower of the Weather Bu-
reau remained at 9S, the thermometers on
the street level ranged all the way from
100 to 106.
The terrible fatality of the heat was
shown in the large percentage of deaths
among those prostrated. Out of 32s cases
of prostration reported up TO II 80 o'clock
tonight, 14S resulted fatally.
Among the more prominent victims were
Rev. DR.. Newland Maynard, the Eplsco-
pal clergyman and lecturer, and Jacob
s. Rogers, the former locomotive builder
Between the hours of o'clock yester-
day and IL O'Clock tonight there were in
the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx
155 deaths and IT'S prostrations. The same
weather conditions which prevailed in
this city obtained in Brooklyn. II was
estimated by the police at midnight to-
night that during Tuesday there had been
sixty deaths and $50 prostrations by the
heat in Brooklyn.