Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1907-09-20
ELECTRIC STORM
HITS MIL WAUKEE .
WATER CAUSES GREAT DAMAGE TO
PROPERTY IN EASEMENTS IN
DOWN TOWN DISTRICTS.
STREETS LIKE RIVERS,
Lightning Strikes Goodrich Sheds-Crip-
Piles Chamber of Commerce
Lights.

MILWAUKEE, Wis, Sept II
| For the space of one hour this morn
| ing, between 1890 and II 80 o'clock, the
| heavens opened their hoodgates and Mil
waukee and vicinity was given a drench-
| ing more thorough than has been ex
| perienced this summer.
The weather bureau announces that
there was a total precipitation of LII Of
an inch up to noon.
| The streets presented the appearance
| of rivers The air seemed almost solid
mass of water. The average man would
stake his weeks salary that the rain fall
amounted to a foot.
| Lightning created CONSERVATION dur
ing the heaviest part of the storm. 1t
| struck one of the Goodrich Transit COM
| pany's sheds, put the chamber OF com
| merce lighting plant out of business, and
struck six other places as follows:
Residence of August Flint 1910 Third
street.
Residence of Otto Grabowski, 1853 Sec
| ond street
Fifth German NJ E. church, Wright and
Fifteenth street.
Residence of A. w. Carney, 1928 Kinnic-
f. p. Benedict, 921 Bartlett street
| Residence of james Parker, go Bartlett
| street.
The loss in each case was trihing and
so far as could be ascertained no one
was injured.
| Darkness, such as has not been known
| in the daytime previously this summer,
| hung over the city for many hours. 1t
| was like night in all of the factories and
! downtown offices, and gas and electricity
| were used as freely as il it had been
midnight.
Air Full of Electricity.
This condition was caused first by
heavy fog and later by the downpour.
| The atmosphere was highly charged with
electricity, which was conducted along
various wires into many buildings and
dashed and snapped from place to place
20 the CONSERVATION of employees. There
were a number of vivid ashes of light
| ming from the heavens, and there We're
low rumbles of thunder for a consider
able time before and after the storm.
Little wind was stirring and the
streams of water descended almost per-
Dendicular. Since Saturday the air has
been moist and oppressive, and before
The rain people were sutfOcating with the
stagnant atmosphere in houses and Of
| ices.
Dense Fog All Morning.
1t was foggy at an early hour, yet at
| ( o'clock one could see several blocks
| along the streets. GREAT UdukS OIL NdpOI
kept rolling in from the lake, and the
darkness kept growing denser until gin
some places one could scarcely see across
the street. Before 10 O'clock it began
to rain, but III spite of this the fog did
not clear. The drops came faster and
larger it seemed for an hour, until many
people were ready to assert that they
had never seen heavier downpour IN so
short a space OF time.
Sidewalks Afloat
The east end of Prairie street was a
river one to two feet deep. Wooden side
walks were tioated out of place. Planks
| became stranded on the tracks at Third
street and impeded the progress of street
cars. Sewers were utterly incapable of
accommodating the flood, which filled
| easements, and poured into the river like
| a miniature fall, north of Steinmeyers
store.
| In many parts of the city refuse and
gravel were washed over streets and
tracks This happened at North Water
and Pleasant street, where a dozen cars
were stalled because of the embankment
piled up.
Easements Are Flooded.
During the downpour scarcely a down
own business block escaped d flood in
the basement, while the streets became
impossible to pedestrians because they
suddenly grew into raging rivers.
The sewers were inadequate to the
work of taking care of the rushing water
| and the result was that sidewalks were
dooded at places while streets between
The curbs became lake of water.
Flood in Chamber of Commerce.
In a number of business blocks the
water backed up and rushed through
toilet rooms, completely covering the
doors and doing more or less damage to
water equipment. The Chamber of Com
merce experienced a flood in the wash
| room as the result of an overflow
| through the water and toilet room pipes,
the floor being covered with water to the
depth of two inches
The fire department received four
alarms of fire during the heaviest part
of the storm all Of which were fires
caused by lightning.
At the city engineers department it
was reported that, while no complaints
had been received, all of the ward la
borers We're out with hoes and rakes
hoated down the cutters and clogged the
drains.
Hicks Predicted It.
Irl r. Hicks, the st. Louis weather
prophet predicted the storm which ar
rived this morning. In August he de-
| cIared that astronomic outlook pointed
| strongly to phenomenally stormy weather
during the period from the 9th to the
18th of September. These storms pre-
vailed over Milwaukee last week. The
second storm period he said, could be
expected from 14th to the 18th.