The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-31
Hundreds of Thousands Of
Dollars in Property De-
stroyed-The Wind Plays
Many Freaks
GALE HAS VELOCITY
OF ALMOST SEVENTY
MILES PER HOUR
Storm Leaps Suddenly From Blazing
Sky and Transforms Sweltering
City Into Scene of Turmoil-All
Business Activity Suspended for
Time

washington, July 3O.-LiIxe giant
fail, cycIonic storm of wind. rain
and hull whipped bncl< and forth across
the nations capital today. leaving
death and ruin In its wake. Three dead,
scores injured and hundreds of thou
sands of dollars worth of property de-
stroyed, was the toll recorded in the
hurried canvass made when the city
aroused itself from half hour of
hcIpiessness I'm the grasp of the eie-
ments.
out of a blazing sky. under which the
city was sweltering with the temperature
at 100 degrees, came the storm, roaring
from the north driving mass of clouds
that cast a mantle of darkness over the
city. The gale, reaching a velocity of
almost 70 miles an hour, swept the streets
clear. unroofed houses, tore detached
small structures from their foundations,
wrecked one office building, overturned
wagons and carriages In the streets, and
swept Washington's hundred parks, tear
ing huge branches from trees and even
uprooting sturdy old elms. land marks of
a century.
Tonight washingtons well kept streets,
with their wealth of trees were Uttered
with broken foliage, roofs, debris and
dead birds as IL a playful giant had care
lessly swished his club up and down the
city.
Turn to Hail
AS the wind wreacked it's havoic the
rain came. and in five minutes the tenn
perature dropped from the hundred mark
to between 60 and TO- Then the rain
turned to hail, and hall stones battered
on roofs and crashed through skyiishts
and windows.
For half an hour the city covered.
paraiyzed, under the beating of the storm,
ev.re activity susrending. TROLLEY ines,
street traffic and telephone service We're
halted. government departments suspend
ed operations.
The wind wrecked a three story brick
office building occupied by the b, s. Saul
company. real estate dealers. and 10 per
sons were carried down in the crash. W
E Hilton. vice president of the real estate
company; Thomas B. Fealey, Go years old.
clerks and an unidentified man who
entered fhe building to try to rescue those
caught in the wreck were taken out of
the ruins dead Half dozen were taken
10 hospitals seriously injured and half
a dozen more were treated for slight in
juries Tonight the police still We're dig
ging In the ruins fearing other bodies
might be recovered.
Lawns Devastated
The neatly kept lawns of the White
House were devastated. Three huge elm
trees uprooted by the wind were thrown
bodily across the lawn, and up to the
very portico of the building. blocking the
~ ed Ina
the executive office and when the wind
era shed through several windows in the
White House proper, Secretary Tumulty
hurried the President and Representative
Kobley of Indiana, with whom he was
comforting, TO sheltered interior room,
away from the searching lightning
flashes
The capitol, set high above the city,
caught the brunt of the wind rain hail
and lightning. The Senate was in session
when the hail swept down with a deaden-
ing roar, beating on the glass roof of the
chamber. The tumult made further busi-
ness impossible and hurrying to the vice
presidents desk. Senator Kern mega
phoned with his hands a motion to recess.
The motion was put and although the sch
ators could hear nothing, the Senate quit
work for Is minutes in confusion.
Painters Are Caught
When the storm broke 30 painters were
at work on the dome of the capitol,
swarming over the curving surface or
swinging high on shaky scaffoldng. Will
liam Reese, the foreman, hurried to the
dome and got most of his men to shelter
inside the big inverted bowl But Jim
Boyle, John Ford, Noble Bailey and
Bruce Jones were too late. Bailey and
Jones succeeded in scaling the dome in the
wind and rain, and gained sheltered
ledge where they weathered the storm
after trying in vain to get inside Boyle
and Ford were caught on a swinging
scaffold just under the caves of the dome
and there they swung, buffeted by the
wind, beaten by the hail and soaked by
the rain, while the flashes of blue light
ming triclxled around the dome, down from
the platum lighting points in the head
of the Goddess of Freedom that surmounts
the structure. When the storm was over
they crept. shaken and bruised, to safety
inside the dome
Panics Appear
Here and there throughout the city panic
appeared Horses, driven frantic by the
wind and hail, dashed through the streets
in terror until they were stopped by col
lision with some other wind strewn OBJ
1ect In some of the office buildings and
the government departments disastrous
(Continucd on page Eighty