The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-03
CITY WIND AND HAIL SWEPT.
LIGHTNING HITS a CHURCH AND
SPLENTERS FLAGPOLES.
Gale Blew More Than 10 Miles an Hour
Heaviest I'm The Bronx and Harlem
DRY NJ Coney Island-EnsIne Fires


The vaulting ambition Of the mercury
was checked yesterday afternoon after
1t had scared to 90 degrees by a series of
picturesque thunder squalls that shot cleo
trio fire Mt exposed marks over all the
boroughs.
The blast in Harlem was OF tornado
force. There fusillade Of hail made tin
roofs rattle. There is no weather bureau
station in Harlem and no thermometer
recorded the fury of the gales that up
rooted some trees and twisted off the limbs
of hundreds at that end Of Manhattan.
Downtown, where the storm was COM
paratively modest, the official wind gauge
for the five minutes between 4:04 and 400
O'Clock spun around at the rate of seventy
two miles an hour
The zone Of flying ice extended south to
about Tenth street and north beyond The
Bronx, Naturally, the aerial refrigeration
was felt even by the Government Their
mometer in lower Broadway. and the mer-
curry took tumble Of 20 degrees, stopping
at 10. The rainfall below Houston street
was not much more than quarter ~ an
inch; but it was torrential in the upper part
of the borough.
The storm crossed Manhattan headed
for the northeast. South OF this borough
there was not much rain. At Coney Island
and at the Sheepshead racetrack there
was none at all, but passengers home-bound
in trolley cars ran into water to the hubs.
At the Washington Park baseball grounds,
at Third street, Brooklyn the game was
stopped for only a few minutes
The storm frs t appeared in the north,
viewed from a tall tower downtown. and
gradually rose iii blue-black ramparts
from the horizon TO the west and south
Lightning ripped the gloom afar off fire.
quently. No thunder was heard by the
weather sharps until 2:ls clock in the after
noon. Then there was rain a-plenty across
the Hudson and to the north Of Manhattan.
1t didn't begin falling into the official gauge
until 403 O'Clock.
The moment the rain ceased the mercury
started soaring again, reaching 80 degrees
at clock. The wind shifted from south
west TO west, the air became trifi dryer
and the temperature fell few degrees
Lightning struck one Of the four carved
pinnacles surmounting the square tower
of the Church of the Divine Paternity, at
Seventy-sixth street and Central Park
West These pinnacles are about eight feet
in height and each is carved in rings and
scrolls for about two feet down from the
top 1t was this top part of the pinnacle
nearest the street and the avenue that was
struck.
A chunk Of the carved sandstone weigh
ing about two hundred pounds fell to the
Seventy-sixth street sidewalk and gouged
out big hole in the tagging. The main
tower was not damaged
The storm swung across the Harlem
River just before tho New York National
League baseball team Was starting in to
play the 1T. Louis nine at the Polo Grounds
About 1 900 persons were watching the play
ers practise when the sky darkened and
then sent down a small deluge, accom-
panied by lot of wind.
With the first drop of rain the crowd
fled for the grandstand, but even those
there got wet. The wind shook the stands
and finally sent down more than one hum
dred feet of the old fence, with a crash that
was louder than the thunder Of the storm.
Louis Maun, the actor, WGS In n han
som outside the field with his wife, Clara
Lipman, when the wind vas n its heavi-
est Their vehicle was blown over, but
neither was hurt
Because Of he rain, pedestrians on Broad
way we're scarce whenthe wind was tearing
around the Flatiron Building, at Twenty
third street. That accounts for the fact
that only one casualty was reported there
The one person hurt was Miss Car
man Of Rockawav Beach, who was weak
from regent illness, She was blown
down and knocked unconscious An am
bulance took her TO the New York Hospital
fifty-foot f1agpole On top Of the eight
story building at Washington place and
Greene street was struck and ten feet of
it taken off. The shock was felt all through
the building and two electric switchboards
We're burned out extinguishing all the lights
The ten feet of fagpole hung by the haliards,
and the superintendent Of the building,
after the storm offered 81 to any boy who
would shin up the pole and bring it down
small boy offered to do it for S., and