Evening journal., 1911-08-19
BABY CYCLONE
HITS THE CITY
UprOOtS Trees, UnrOOfS Cars
and Drives Small Boats
Ashore
SMALL BOY HURT ''''
UNDER FALLING TREE

UNUEk rhLLlNG IkkE
As a climax to the most unusual
weather that Wilmington has had for
ioiiE time, freak wind storm broke
over the city yesterday afternoon.
frightening people everywhere by it's
suddenness and peculiar character. Itl
resembled a cyclone. The best feature
was the fact that It ended the heat
wave. temporarily at least. The
thermometer dropped many degrees
in short time and sleeping was good
last night
The storm came up from the west
and from hot, sultry day the atmos-
phere quickly changed TO a day more
fitted TO the latter part of the fall.
The Thermometer dropped twelve de-
grees within fifteen minutes, almost a
degree a minute.
The cloud bank came IN suddenly.
whirling the dust in every direction.
and everything that was not lashed
down was shaken by H. Trees we're
blown down and stripped, and things
looked serious for time
! The roof Of the home of Charles
Biddle. No. sol East Seventeenth
street, was torn OF and tossed into
the street Several persons passing
az the time, had narrow escape from
injury. The falling roof carried with
It all the electric wires IN front OF
the house and. these furnished brill
liant display OF fire.
Boats Blown Loose.
The force Of the wind tore many
boats At the Orchard. Eleventh street
bridge, from their moorinRs. and
swept them down the Brandywinal
creek. A number OF men at the
Orchard al the time. however. sue
ceeded In recovering all the boats and
securing them before much damage
was done. Some Of the boats went
ashore. No serious damage was done
to the boats
An electric sign Of the Peary Shoe
Company. at the southeast corner Of
Fifth and Market streets. WAS torn
from it's fastenings and hung suspend
ed over the sidewalk swaying with
the wind. II looked as though II would
fan at any moment. and policeman
was sent TO warn people away. Later
e riggers fixed the sign temporarily
Tree Fell on Him.
The worst injury inflicted was :
Harvey W. Crossgrove, aged . ye'fl
Of No 1912 Jackson street He wa
NJ pined under a big tree which foil OF
n him. The boy was removed TO the Del
awars Hospital unconscious His con.
dition Is considered serious.
a Crossgrove. with several other boys,
his age, was in a wagon which was
being driven along the Kontmere
road as the storm broke. When It
neared Fields lane a big tree was
blown down. 10 fell across the wagon
and of all the boys in the crowd Cross
grove was the only one caught under
t. He was taken from under the tree
r with great difficulty and removed to
the hospital in the Phoenix ambu.-
lance. He is injured internally.
Trolley traffic on the Riverview
: line of the Wilmington and Philadel-
phia Traction Company was inter-
fered with. A big tree fell across the
: trolley wires at Fourteenth and Mar
ket streets, carrying them down with,
D It. The bog part of the tree lay across
the tracks and II had TO be cut
through before traffic could be re-
sumed.
A similar accident occurred at
Twenty-ninth and Market streets
where a tree fell across the trolley
3 tracks
4 The Peoples Railway also had trou-
BILE A tree fell at the Rockford
( school house. pulling down the troll
> ley wires, also the police and FIRE
wires. A dozen other trees were
blown down.
A portion Of the roof of Public
School No. 26 was blown on.
Z Blew Roofs OF Cars.
The wind was particularly aggres
sive in the northeastern section Of Il
= city and along the river The broa
side of wind struck a Wilson liner a
blew chairs about but the boat ke
plugging along through the blow.
AS a freight train was being shin
l over the hump" in the Edge Nc
, yards the wind swooped down upnr
and lifted the roofs off two cars, Sc
r ing the boards flying through the
| The wind was severe through
) country surrounding Wilmington,
while many trees were broken,
? serious damage has been reported
Sand Storm Over Bridge.
In the Washington Heights sec
z the baby cyclone" took the form
I sand storm. Before housewives
4 get their windows closed Boreas
tered white sand throughout
= houses, necessitating late Fridi
r ternoon house cleaning. In =
d homes crockery and wall ded
l. were destroyed by the wind.
Carpenters who we're at
Continued on Second Pa,