New-York tribune., 1907-09-22
EQUINOX STRIKES HARD
SEASONS BIGGEST STORM.
Lightning ThrO5cs T1co Hospitals
Into PGnic-RGH, Hind and Hail.


metropolitan district this season struck New
York and nearby towns Yesterday afternoon
The wind attained such velocity In some dis
tricts as to hurl unstable buildings to the
ground. while the lightning struck many high
points. causing considerable damage
Inhabitants Of Manhattan were fortunate. for,
| according to the official report Of the weather
bureau. the wind attained velocity Of only
twenty-five miles hour there. In Brooklyn
and Queens and at other points on Long Island
however. there was heavy gale. while large
hatstones fell in some parts of Brooklyn
The weather bureau gave the rainfall in lower
Manhattan as forty-four one-hundredths OF an
inch Most Of it FELL however. in the fifteen
minutes between $40 and 5:25 O'Clock. and
turned the streets into swiftly flowing rivers.
welcome feature OF the storm. however,
was the drop of Il degrees in the temperature
| in an hour and a half.
A curious thing was smaller storm that pre-
| Ceded the main one. This storm began shortly
| after ) and did not touch the lower part Of New
| York at all Up around 23d street. however,
there was a heavy fall Of rain.
The storm seems to have been particularly
| severe in Williamsburg. where the lightning
| flashed almost continuously. St GATHERINGS
| Hospital. at Maujer and Ten Eyck streets and
the German Roman Catholic Church. at Olive
! and Deboe streets, were struck by two BOLTS
/ that came apparently exactly the same time
| The two buildings stand three blocks apart
A binding flash seemed 10 encircle the golden
/ cross Of the tower Of the hospital and then
/ sent it crashing to the ground scraping the
| wall Of the building and just missing an an1bu-
/ lance
| PATIENTS ALARMED
/ There was panic in the hospital Most OF
| the PATIENTS many Of whom severely i'll.
/ rose from their beds and started for the doors
/ leading to the halls. Some fell their knees
/ and began TO pray. Doctors rushed into the
! room and with the help of the Dominican Sis
/ ters succeeded IN quieting the disturbed men
and women. though some OF them suffered severe
/ nervous shocks.
/ In the German Roman Catholic Church there
/ were two hundred parishioners a service a
( bolt struck the spire and shattered fifteen feet
| Of IL sending the broken part through the
/ Deboe street section Of the building. The crash
started panic. The congregation rushed to the
street, where a great crowd gathered II was
necessary call out half dozen policemen
from the Herbert street station 10 restore order.
| On the Williamsburg Bridge there we're crowds
OF Hebrews returning from Manhattan where
| they had been taking part in the festival Ter
! rfhed by the lightning. they sought shelter in
every available place. and remained qutvering
with fear until the storm abated-
| In Brooklyn more damage was done. though
the storm there not quite severe as it was
/
| of a four story building at No. 21S 49th street
tearing Off the coping and causing a small fire.
/ On the way to the fire the tender OF Engine rs
| stuck fast in a hole at No. 214 49th street,
/ where a sewer had caved in on account OF the
| inflow OF water and IL took more than an hour
to extricate the vehicle a tree in front OF NO
so 24th street was blown down and fell across
the road just as a delivery wagon driven by
Henry Watts was passing The horse was kl4led
and the wagon badly damaged
NEARLY browns IN STREET
Frank DevIin. who was driving furniture
van at Nevins and WyckofT streets. was nearly
drowned in the water that fell while 1t was
raining Devlin was driving along when his
truck was overturned by the wind. landing him
in a torrent of water that was rushing along
the street He became entangled in the wreck
and could not escape. He was slowly drowning
when Joseph SfichaeIs. OF No 1O2 Smith street.
came 20 his aid and succeeded in extricat1ns
him He was taken to the Norwegian Hospital.
where il was found that he was suffering from
concusston OF the brain. He IS likely to die
The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company had its
troubles also. the worst being on the Brighton
Beach line at Woodruff avenue Two feed wires
were blown down by the wind and completely
tied I'D traffic for nearly two hours
A telegraph pole on Abraham & Straus : store,
in Fulton street was blown down by the wind
and fell across the elevated tracks There was
an electrical display. and the line tied up
for some minutes. tree blown across the
tracks on the Tompkins avenue line stopped
things for a half hour, while another tree tled
ND the I,oriner street line at Ainslee street
Lena Miller Of No. Ridgewood street. was
struck by lightning at Flatbush avenue and LIN
,oln Road during the storm and taken TO Kings
County Hospital by DR. Moore, who said that
she would recover. Lightning striking barn
At No. 7S 10th street. whitestone. caused frs
which did $4,000 damage
COMMUTERS DELAYED.
The lightning completely paraIyzed the elec-
trio suburban service OF the New York Central
and New York, New Haven & Hartford rail-
roads. AS result many commuters mad 70
get off trains along the route and ride home on
trolley cars The delay on the Central and Har-
lem roads was caused by lightning interfering
with the operation of the electric signals Abovs
125th street trains were held I'D at every sig
nal At o'clock the lightning put the heavy
messenger wires of the New Haven Railroad
o,r,,,,Ia+er,, o,t OF commission. Trains wers
STALLED all along the line The power was OFT
for an hour and a half. and the company was
obIfeea 20 abandon its local schedule completely.
= hundreds of theatTegOers were on the stalled
+-.tns and they took the trolley cars along
with the commuters
The storm played havoc in Long Island City
doing particular damage TO the superstructurs
at the approach TO the new Blackwehs island
Rr,dre Huge steel beams were lifted by ths
wind off the superstructure and dropped into
the ,voods below A huge travelling crane, 2o0
feet long. 125 feet high 40 feet wide and eapaois
of lifting sixty tons was struck by lightning ana