The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-12
CITY STORM SWEPT
THUNDER AND LIGHTNING. RAIN
AND HAIL, FOR NEARLY TWO
HOURS.
WIND OF THlRTY-SIX MILES.
TORE OFF SHUTTERS AND LIMBS,
But DID LITTLE ACTUAL DAM
AGE.

corded in Hour and a HaIf-Streets
East of Park to AbercOrn, and in
Extreme South of City, Miniature
Lnkes-Three Street Cars Derailcd
by Sand, Five Burned Out, and
Three Broken Places in Trolley
Wire Put Street Car System Tenn
porariIy Out of Business-StOrn
More Than Unusually Intense but
by no Means n Record Breaker.
Savannah was in the centre of a
heavy rain and thunderstorm yester-
day. which began a little after 4
o'clock and lasted nearly two hours,
and which both in length and severity
proved one of the fiercest that have
been experienced this summer. Flash
es of lightning came with intermis-
sions of only a few seconds, and were
followed so closely by crashing peals
of thunder that no doubt was left of
the nearness, intensity and danger
from the electrical discharges.
Fortunately though. there was no
loss of life so far as known, and COM
paratively little damage to property.
Such damage as was reported consist
ed in the main of shutters blown off,
limbs of trees wrenched away, gardens
washed away and of overturned and
/ broken flowers The fact that nothing
more serious occurred is rather re-
markable as the wind, strong at all
times while the storm lasted, at one
time, $50 o'clock, reached the maxi
mum velocity of Sc miles an hour.
| One and Three-fourths Inches of
Rain.
The remarkable feature of the storm
was the excessively heavy rainfall,
This up to o'clock at night registered
| 1.75 inches and practically all of it
fell within an hour and half, from
APO to $50 o'clock. During the hight
of the storm a little hail also fell
but so little as hardly to be noticed.
The figures are those of the Weather
Bureau but persons who visited the
southern as we'll as the nothrern part
of the city during the storm think
the rainfall in the southern part was
much heavier and this would seem
probable for the streets from the Park
eastward to Abercorn street looked
like mtniture lakes and the same
conditions prevailed in the southern
most part of the city.
Streets Flooded.
So heavy was the rain that it washed
clear over the street car tracks in three
instances seeping up so much sand on
| the track that cars were derailed by it.
| This, coupled with the further fact that
| five cars were burned out through the
aerial discharges getting into their mo-
| tors, and that ithef trolley wires of the
| system became broken loose in three
/ places, either through being struck by
| the lightning or by the force of the
wind, put the entire car system out of
| business for some time.
AS soon as an accident was reported
| at the Savannah Electric Company's,
/ however, steps to repair the damage
| were Immediately taken and because
| of this promptness all of the lines
were running in good shape shortly
after the storm had blown itself out.
1t was the sort of day that ner-
vous people dread, for in many houses
| there are telephones, electric fans, or
| electric lights, and with every flash of
lightning these wires snapped and
popped in a most alarming way to
people whose nerves are the least bit
| sensitive.
Despite the severity of the storm,
| though, 1t was by no means the worst
| that Savannah has experienced, either
| as to the electrical discharges or the
amount of the rainfall. OF course no
! record is kept of the former, and
therefore figures cannot be given, but
figures can be given as to the rainfall
and these show that that of yesterday
was exceeded and that in much short
! it11a 10 Il,
when, on the 18th. 2.S9 inches of rain
fell in 56 minutes.
Some Former Heavy Rains.
Former years also show some inter
esting figures relative to heavy rains.
| AS late as 1898 there was a fall of 2
| inches in only an hour and twenty min
utes, and this record was beaten by one
of the preceding year when, August IA,
there was a fall of 1876 inches in exact
ly one hour. August also has an in
teresting record of heavy rains for
twenty-four consecutive hours. In
1898, to go. no further back, SCI inches
fell; in 1895, $685. 1898, 5.44 and again,
the banner record for the decade, 7.31,
and 1899, 571. August, 1898, was, in
fact, one of the wettest months record
ed in the history of the local bureau,
the total fall amounting to 22.79 inches.
AS to yesterdays storm itself there
was nothing unusual. said Local Fore
cast Official Boyer. Its intensity was
rather greater than usual and, as a
natural consequence, the aerial pyro-
technics were more pronounced.
Course of the storm.
Such storms, he continued, are a
phenomena that may be expected when
the meteorological conditions of the
country are as they were yesterday,
when an area of high pressure extend
ed over the West as far southwark as
Northern Texas, coupled with such low
temperature as in the case yesterday
actually produced frost in the
Dakotas, while there was
an area of low pressure over the lower
lakes and over New England. Such
conditions usually cause storms to the
south of the area, and to such a cause
that of yesterday is attributable.
The maximum temperature yester-
day was 92 degrees, at 2:30 p. M, and
the minimum, 50, at p. m. The re-
sultant mean was so, while the normal
is ST. This gives to the month, to
date, an accumulated excess of 81 de-
gress and reduces the deficiency of the
year to ga degrees. The accumulated
excess of rain for the month is II of
an inch, but the year still shows a
shortage of 4.51 inches. The indica-
lions for the state to-day are fair
weather. light to- fresh northwest
winds, shifting to northeast.