Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-07-20
MUCH NEEDED RAIN
Saturdays Storm Amounted {,
 More Than Two Inches.

The rain storm of Saturday after noon amounted to two inches and a half of water. The shower of last night measured nine one hundredths of an inch. These amounts added to what fell during the rest of the month bring the total up to ATT. This is doing we'll considering that this is only the goth.
 N. J. Welton, state meteorologist, says it came down fast and disap- peared very quickly; but 1t all went somewhere and finally found its way to the reservoirs and other places where it will be of use to man.
 The damage to the streets was con- siderable and in many instances was due to the blocking of the gutters at driveways. This is something the city has tried hard to do away with, but 1t is hard to convince the aver age citizen that he hasn't right to do what he pleases in fornt of his own property, notwithstanding that he has no more rights there than anybody else. But the rain was a God-send and while many were scared at the sharp lightning, all felt relieved to see the downpour.
 Aside from the damage done to the streets, which will cost few thousand dollars, some nice trees fared badly and considerable private property was injured. A bolt struck the residence of Walter Fitzmaurice on Mitchell avenue and the residence of H. c. Beach in the same street was also hit. Both buildings were damaged to some extent.
 A still alarm was sent in calling the department to the corner of East Main street and Hamilton ave- nue, where lightning ran down into the fuse box on the telephone pole and started to burn. 4 few similar cases occurred, but they didn't aomunt to anything.
 During the storm the cross was knocked off the Catholic church at Thomaston and St Mary's church in Portland suffered a like injury.
 Mayor Thoms and the heads of the different departments made tour of the city Saturday afternoon and evening to see how seriously the streets had been gutted. In some places, notably on Lounsbury street, expected to find them.
 Robert Hayes, aged IS, of North Main street; James Carbon, 16, of Cherry street; Francis Doherty, 12. Coe street, and Frank Bcland, IS, of Camp street, were amusing them selves near the corner of East Main and Wall streets when lightning struck rock on which they were standing, stunning them and throw up soon after and didn't appear much the worse for the experience, but all admitted that they had come as close as they wanted to to being victims of electricity.
 Although the lightning struck few places it did not do much dam age to speak of but as usual greatly frightened the women and children. One bolt hit the home of Thomas Fitzmaurice at 27 Mitchell avenue and badly damaged the room occu- Hitu Uy w diACi Ab jared the house from cellar to roof. About the same time the home of Horace G. Beach of 19 Mitchell av- enue was also struck, large hole being torn in the roof. A bolt played pranks about the house of Frank Herman at 102 Burton street and tossed things around some in a room occupied by John Stadler. A large mirror was shattered into frag- ments and some crockery that was on a stand was broken into atoms.
 Lightning sent a scare through J. H. Mulville's undertaking rooms Hn East Main street and for a time 1t seemed as though 1t would make some work for the firm. It passed so close to George Hynes who was in the store at that time that he trem- bled. for about half an hour after ward. It played havoc with the telephone wires and tied up the ser vice on some of the lines. It also connected with the fire alarm bell and caused it to ring couple of times.
 Such a quantity of stones, dirt and water came down from Gloves steps onto North Willow street that the car tracks were completely covered at this point. The cars for the most part got by the spot all right after the crews shovelled away the dirt, but one of the first to come down when the storm was at It's height jumped the rails. It was de- layed about fifteen minutes as the result.
 The fire alarm box at the corner of East Main street and Hamilton avenue was ignited by a streak of lightning that ran down the tele- graph pole on which the box was. The lightning struck several places around the state including s. Mary's church in Portland and St Thomas's