The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-07-26
Probably the Most Severe OF
The Summer Season Was
That Which Ragged for Fully
An Hour This Morning.
MUCH DAMAGE is DONE
OF A MINOR NATURE.
Telephone Companies Suf-
fered Perhaps the Worst of
Any One---Rain Fall the
Past Few Days Tremendous

A terrific electrical storm, prooaury
the most severe that has yet struck
Richmond, alighted on the community
early this morning and ragged for al
most an hour. with unusual ferocity.
Brilliant flashes OF lightning illumi-
mated the heavens, followed by loud
thunder claps. The winds blew with
great force and the rain fell in torrents.
Telephone. telegraph. and other public
service lines were badly disabled. F'us-
es were blown at the light plants and
for time portions of the city were In
darkness save for the light repeatedly
coming from the heavens. Thousands
of persons over the city were aroused
from their sleep by the wierd peals
OF thunder and for a time It was feared
a much more severe storm than really
swept over the city. was approaching.
Many Telephones Out.
The heavy storm OF Thursday after
noon and this morning did untold dam
age. The Home Telephone company
had four hundred telephones burned
out during both storms and again the
work which the company 10 now doing.
was delayed, all available men being
sent out on trouble" force OF
men worked all of Thursday night to
remedy as far as possible the damage
done, Richmond was without COM
munication with many of the smaller
county towns and larger cities outside
the county. owing to the demoraliza-
tion Of the toll lines. The line south
was torn down by a tree falling over
It. Wires were snapped as II they werc
threads and communication to the
south came to halt. The eastern,
western and northern toll lines also
were SO badly damaged that It took the
greater part Of day to remedy tho
conditions. The country lines were
also damaged, while many phones were
burned out by the lightning. Tho
Bell company escaped better than did
the Home people. due to the fact that
the connections and other work being
done now by the Home Telephone COM
pany, leaves many wires exposed and
they are consequently more suscepti-
BILE.
Lightning struck in different places
about Richmond, but no fires resulted.
although the fire laddies were awaiting
a call at any minute.
Rainfall Very Heavy.
The rainfall for the month OF jury
teen years for any one month--five and
hundredths inches. One
and one-ha4. inches of rain fell Thurs
day afternoon and early this morning.
But few people realize the amount OF
water that has fallen this month. Ac-
cording to departmental statistics, al
most 67S tons fell to each acre OF
ground in Wayne county. This is
based on departmental figures which
state that one inch Of rainfall means
1922 gallons OF water to the acre,
which is 226,220 pounds.
The farmers are still deeper In hot
water as there are many acres Of
wheat yet uncut or partially cut. bind
ers standing in the field which are a
sea of mud. Threshing is out Of the
que estion, and IL present wet weather
prevail the wheat and oats
crop will greatly suffer. II the grain
stands on the stem much longer it will
be beaten out by the heavy rains, while
II crIf IL will mould in the shock