The Minneapolis journal., 1902-08-30
WORST OF SEASON
The Storm Last Evening Did Much
Damage by Fire and
: Flood.
First Congregational Church steeple
Destroyed The School Of Mines
Badly scorohed. y

Minneapolis and vicinity was visited last
night by one Of the seVerest rain and cleo
trical storms of the season. The electrical
storm, which seemed to hover over the
southeastern portion of the city for nearly
an hour, was very severe, and the cleo
trical display was one the most beautiful
ever witnessed In the city.
The i First CONGREGATIONAL church,
Eighth avenue and Fifth street. Sc. was
struck by lightning shortly after the storm
began. Although Officer Odin Void saw
the bolt fall, owing to the fire alarm sys-
TENS being; out Of order, the alarm was
not turned in for nearly twenty minutes
after the fire started. When the depart
ment arrived the steeple was In blaze.
The slate, with which the steeple was
covered cinfined the flames to the in
terror. When at last they broke out, the
display was beautiful. After nearly an
hours work the flames were extinguished.
The loss is estimated at $500.
School Of Mines scorched.
While the first fire was raging III the
steeple of the church, "a still more disas-
trous blaze was discovered in the school
of mines at the univ versity. Lightning
struck the building and an alarnr was
turned in by THE night watchman.a AS
soon as Chief Hanleya arrived he sent In a
second alarm. As a number of the com
panies that should have answered this
call, We're at the Congregational church,
the call was responded to by companies
which had much further ito come. When
they arrived, the fire was well under way
and 1t was several minutes before the
flames were under control
The :flalmes were confined mostly to the
upper story where the specimens were
stored. The lowr floor which was well
niled with valuable machinery was not
reached by the fames.s The loss to ma
chlnery will be small but it will be almost
impossible itosestimats the loss on ,speci-
mems as manySof them W III be al ficult tc
replace. Phe estimat ted loss on building
contents and machinery IS 81, 800 ,gg q +
The loss may int erfere with the ffworl,
OF the department., but some other build
Ing at the\ university will doubtless bt
used until the building damaged last
night can be repaired.
II Street Car Jared. = !..~$
A Minnehaha street car was struck b,
lightning last night at Thirteenth avenue
| through the trolley and was carried
through the motor to one of the from
| wheels, where it grounded with louG
report. No one was injured, but the oc.
cupants Of the car were badly frightened
The rain came down ins torrantsa over,
moving the, sewers a and8 Fhooding sthe
| streets.>I In various parts Of the down towr
| district, the water reached a great deptf
in the cutters and threatened to overflow
the sidewalks.
! A sandwich wagon at First street ant
N1collet had to be anchored. as it threat
ened to be carried away in the flood. The
| streets were covered with pieces of drift
| wood, while in many places they were
almost blockaded by dirt washed about
| Street gar traffic was greatly interferet
with. The Como-Interurban was blocket
for over an hour, due to the piling of sane
| on the tracks near the belt line bridge II
St Anthony Park. The Oak and kenMope
| and the Monroe and Lynda1e ni1es Were
also blocked n the same way. 81. ay
/ % Cellars Flooded 8 Is
Easements and cellars in all parts O
the city were flooded. The basement O
fire station "A" was filed with six fee
of water, which spouted up from tht
sewer manholes.
The damage. caused by the water canno
be estimated, but it is thought that it will
aggregate several thousand dollars.