The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1901-08-26

mousse III the centre OF the Wlike Atiil, w
cupied by George Engel, his wife and
three small children.
In a twinkling the house was in ruins,
and boards, timbers and articles of fur
niture were being carried through tfe
air with great velocity. in the ruins were
Engel and his family.
Thomas Short. who resides over The
Greenville Railroad station, was standing
on the STATEN platform when the house
collapsed like a pack of cards. He rush
ed to the rescue of the inmates. AS ne
reached the opposite side of the track he
got into the path of the tornado and was
blown off his feet. He was game, how
ever, and when he got his breath he vas
up again and running toward the ruins.
When he reached the house ne could see
no cne All were beneath the debris. Un-
der the railroad bridge was gang OIL
laborers that had sought shelter from the
rain. Short ran back and called to them
They saw the state of affairs, and hurry-
ing to the ruins got to work with PICK
axes and crow bars to rescue the victims.
They thought that they would find al Oh
The members of the family dead, and they
were surprised to find them alive.
The children were unharmed. but Engel
and his wife were severely injured. Ensel
had his collar bone and several riee
broken and his wife was injured about
the head They were both sent to the
City Hospital. The children were cared
for by neighbors.
Engel was found lying on soft with
a paper in his hand that he had been
reading when the tornado struck the
house. The wife was found under a pile
of rafters, unconscious. One youngster
was under bed. When taken out ne
laughed. as if the whole thing were a
pretty good joke. The tornado carried
several chairs to the Lehigh Valley road,
near the Mount Zion Sanctuary, DIS
tance of nearly one-third of mile. sec
tions of timber from the building had peen
carried to the Morris Canal, distance OF
a quarter of mile, and there driven into
the mud as if by spile driver. All over
the farm were scattered articles OF FUR
niture and parts of the wrecked puilding.
The entire roof was carried 200 feet ana
there dropped broken into kindling WOOD.
On over the farm lands sped the tor
nado, but it found nothing to destroy un-
til it reached the east side of the Lenlgh
tracks, which are almost on the Ne"
York Bay shore. Here the Greenvllle
Gun Club has it's clubhouse Like nash
the small clubhouse was lifted high into
the air. Its fragments were spread over
an acre of meadow land and some pieces
found a resting place in the bay.
Larry Kells's big fishing sloop, which
had been pulled up in the creek and Sc
f0t1, CT
was hurled so feet up into the meadows.
It's mast was broken into a hunored
pieces. otherwise the boat was not dam
aged. A number of small boats at anchor
near the shore were torn from their
anchorage. Some drifted out, but others
were thrown on the shore.
At this point the tornado, which did not
appear to extend over a space more tnan
three hundred yards wide at any time,
seemed to veer a little to the north 1t
gained force constantly and when 1t
struck the Mount Zion Sanctuary the
havoc it created was almost indescribable.
There was great roaring and crasnlng.
IN a trice the Faith Curists' church was
a mass of ruins Giant trees were up
rotted and as they fell they made reports
like those from monster cannon. Trees
were piled together in the yards and in
the street in great confusion.
On the eastern side of the New YORK
Bay Cemetery, which extends TO the
Central Railroad tracks, number OF
tomb stones were blown down, and sew
eral trees were uprooted and thrown
across the Central's tracks, causing
block on that road. Several telegraph
poles went the way of the trees and
number of wires were broken, which
necessarily crippled the telegraph service.
The Central authorities put gang
promptly to work clearing the trees and
noles from the tracks In a little over
an hour traffic was resumed. The Phila-
delphia Express, which left Jersey CITY
at four O'Clock yesterday afternoon came
in contact with the broken trees Several
of the car steps on the right side OF the
train were torn away, and the sides OF
the cars were somewhat damaged. The
injuries, however, were not sufficient to
preyent the train from continuing on It's
way.
On the Mount Zion Sanctuary site. are
several houses. One of the smaller. OF
these. directly in the rear of the Sanctu-
arv. was partially destroyed and Michael
Eaton. the Sanctuary care taker, was
seriously injured. His house is two
story affair. When the tornado struck 1t
Eaton was downstairs and his wife and
five year old son were in the upper apart
ments.
When the building began to totter
Mrs. Eaton threw her child out of the
rear window. She had hardly accomplish
ed this when the house fell forward. She
went down with the ruins, but fortunate
ly she was not seriously hurt. She was
able to scramble out and she then began
a search for her husband, who, she knew
must be in the ruins. She heard groans
under a pile of rafters, and going to 1t
she found her husband She attempted to
lift the timbers off him, but was un-
successful. Thinking that her husband
was dying she called loudly for help.
A number of men who were just landing
on the beach heard her cries and ran to
her assistance With the aid of timbers
they managed to extricate Eaton who
was unconscious. He was revived and
later taken to the City Hospital, where
it was found that he was not seriously
injured. 1t is said that he will shortly
recover. Mrs. Eaton says the experience
was terrible one and she hopes never
to pass through such an ordeal again.
The other buildings on this site were not
seriously damaged, although the fences
were broken in a number of places by the
falling trees