The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-10-10
RAINFALL.
WIDESPREAD DAMAGE AND STOP.
PAGE OF BUSINESS.
Erie Railroad Completely Tied Up, and
All Other Roads In Great Di1icul.
ties-Explanati0n Of the Storm-An.
other Ono Down the Coast Has Its Ego
on Us. but May Sheer On-Rain for
To-day. Clearing Weather Tomorrow.

other Ono Down the Coast Has Its Ego
on Us, but May Sheer On-Rain for
To-day, Clearing Weather Tomorrow.
Never since they began to keep official
tabs on the weather in these parts, was
New York ever deluged by such rain
storm DIS that which set in on Thursday
morning and stopped about $50 o'clock
yesterday afternoon. Not only was II
record breaker as to the volume Of water
that fell, but it also broke all records a.
knocker-out OF railroads. The oldest rail-
road official on any road running into New
York or having connections with it cannot
remember a plain. ordinary. every day
rainstorm putting so many railroads out OF
business for SO long time AZ this one did,
1t seriously interftrad with the freight
and passenger traffic of every railroad
having connection with This city, and Il
put the Erie out Of b. sipess entirely. Not
| train ran either elst or w,st4 over that
line from early yesterday morning. and
1t was said at the 9 eneral superintendent
Office shortly after midnight this morning.
that 1t looked as II none Of the divisions
would be open before daylight. The worst
thing about the situation on the Erie was
that the telegraph and telephone wires
along the line of the road were down, and
the officials had not been able, up to O'Clock
yesterday afternoon, TO tell just the extent
to which their properly had been damaged.
About all that the ordinary layman knew
as to the why and the wherefore Of the storm
was that it was laundering big one and
that it rained just as if the celestial water
hnI oil I,,ro thn ND
that time being when the celestial plumbers
were all on strike. Down in the Weather
Bureau, however, they knew more. Il
is wonderful how easy the freaks OF the
weather can be explaine when you UNDER
stand the freaks. 1t is for his understand
ing of weather freaks that the United States
Government pays Forecaster Emery, and
he didn't have any more trouble In ex-
planning the whichness and the whyness
of the downpour than other folk did In
cussing at it.
Its just this way" said Mr.. Emery.
"You know that We have been in some wet
weather? The forecaster wouldn't have
dared to go down on Broadway and ask
that que stion. I mean that we were just
| getting over storm when this came along.
| Well. the first one came from the north
| west, and, when it struck the Lakes, 1t be-
| came known as what we call q Lake storm.
| 1t came down the coast and passed out to
sea. In the meantime another storm, OF
| greater power even than that which came
down from the Lakes, had started up from
the south Atlantic.
when the northern storm passed out to
sea 1t opened path, as VIC say, for the ono
! he unN.tI, To tro
storm was central to-day over Virginia. y
is travelling north and we have been aar
| vised from Washington this afternoon to
order up the storm signals along this part
Of the coast and to warn vessels to stay in
port. We shall be able to tell later whether
this affair from the south is really coming
our way or not
"But the storm that has been prevailing,
officially, from o clock last night until now
has been record breaker. In the twenty
four hours ending at O clock this morning,
842 inches of rain fell. The nearest we
ever came to any such precipit alton before
they always like to speak of rain as pre-
| cipitation" at the Weather Bureau was
on Sept. 49, 1882, when 8.l7 inches fell.
But for the purpose Of proper comparison.
you should know that, from o clock Thurs
day morning to $50 this afternoon, 1904
| inches fell. From these figures you will
| get the mott ion that we have had considerable
| precipitation.
| There were some peculiar things about
this storm. During Thursday night 40
inches of rain fell here but not drop fell
at Block Island only a short distance from
here, and there was no rain during tho
night, to speak of, north of here along the
coast. Yesterday, however, there was
plenty of it. Next to Now York. Atlantic
City got the heaviest wetting. There
Alp inches of rain fell. Albany came next
with 3.72 inches. Then Scranton, Pa, came
along with 2.32 inches. Other places man
aged to survive with something over N
inches apiece"
Last evening, after Mr.. Emery had re-
ceived his coastwise and other reports,
he said that it had been storming all day
south of New Jersey, and that the Southern
storm was still hanging off the Virginia
coast. section of it, or n quarter section,
or something like that, had passed inland.
but it wasn't moving north so rapidly as
had been expected On the other hand,
high winds were prevailing all along the
coast, from Nantucket to North Caro-
lima Block Island reported last night
a wind bowling along at the rate Of
fifty miles an hour. As a usual thing,
high pressures in the North play ducks
and brakes with storm coming up from
the South.
At 1915 last evening, after Mr.. Emery
had taken a last look at the weather before
going to bed, and after he had examined
his latest reports, he gave out the following
as an indication OF the kind of weather
we in these parts may reasonably expect
to have to-day:
Raining Saturday; probably clearing Sun
Gay: high northeast winds.
The railroads began to have their troubles
lust as soon az the earliest trains began to
move yesterday morning. The Erie was
hit the worst Of all. After about o clock
yesterday morning not train moved
either east OF west over the Erie rails To
be sure, one train did limp in shortly after
II o'clock, but that had been on the road
between Sufern and Jersey City since q
little after 7. EARLY in the afternoon the
following notice WIS posted In the Erie
ferryhouse at the foot OF Chambers street:
No trains west Of Passaic on the main line.
No trains west OF Newark on Newark branch.
No trains west OF Norwood on the Northern Rail-
road Of New Jersey.
No trains -as; g: Ferns. Hi on .he Ms- York
and Greenwood Lake Division.
No trains ON the Jersey and New York Railroad.
No trains on tho New York. Susqueianns and
Western Railroad.
L.. AL H.. .lx~k ~