Norwich bulletin., 1917-08-18
FOUR DISTINCT STORMS
 MET OVER NORWICH.
Bolt Hit Shore Line Cable House on
 Laurel Hill.

One of the sharpest and heaviest
 electrical storms that has visited Nor
 wich in some time broke over the city
 about 7.45 o'clock Friday morning and
 continued for nearly an hour. There
 were four distinct storms, one coming
 from the west. one from the east, one
 from the south and the fourth from
 the north-all meeting over the city.
 The approaching storm was herald
 ed by continuous roll of thunder
 which lasted nearly half an hour.
 The lightning was sharp and struck
 in many places. little after o'clock
 blowing out a fuse and putting the lighting system out of commission for some time. Following one sharp flash, the bell on the Second Congregational church which Is sounded by the fire alarm circuit rang as some part of the system was hit.
 A bolt struck the cable house of the Shore Line Electric company al Lau- rel Hill and burned it considera bly,. The Shore Line suffered the most from the storm, as the lightning tied up the Danielson division by burning off the cable, cars were burned out 0n all the lines to and from the city. In all the company had ten motors burned out during the storm. Reports came into the city during the day that trees and barns in the country surrounding Norwich had been struck during the storm. but no seri- ouS damage was done. The telephone system ifi many parts of the city was put out of order. but as soon as the sterm a bated the trouble hunters were | on tHH job and had them back in shape | oy the afternoon.
 In the evening there were several | flashes and few drops of rain, but the storm went around the city. New London was visited by the worst electrical storm of the season Friday morning and it is long time | since there has been so severe a dis han hot yiNfv, | slam banged around New London with | great violence for several minutes 1 coming down on the city from the | northwest It was of short duration | but while it lasted it was really ter rife
 | The thunder claps were unusually | loud and the lightning vivid while the | rain was torrential. For five or ten minutes steadily it fell in sheets. Sel- | dom has more rain fallen during the time than came down in Friday morn | ing's storm.
 l A bolt of lightning struck Bulkeley | school during the severe part of thee
 storm. The lightning hit the north l east corner of the tower on the front l of the building and shattered one of
 the large granite blocks and tore up
 a few of the slate shingles on the | roof along which the lightning ran. 1 The damage is not thought to be | great.
 Despite the severity of the storm. 1 negligible in New London, although a 1 barn in Groton was struck by light | ming and destroyed Two electric light | and telephone poles were struck. one | in front of the Cannonball park in | Town hill and the other in Montauk
 avenue, near the Lawrence hospital. | Both of the poles were sent crashin g
 to the ground and splintered into | kindlinE wood.
 l The telephone service was damaged
 to some extent but not seriously, ac- | cording to officials of the Southern l New England Telephone Go. con-
 siderable number of telephone lines were put out of commission. l Lightning set fire to the barn of | Latham Avery at Eastern Point and l entirely destroyed it. there being no | possible chance of saving either the | building it's contents, as it was
 ablaze all over within very few | minutes of the start of the fire. The barn contained many farming imple- | ments, a cream separator and ten tons | of hay. Fortunately all the animals s | were outside was also Mir. Avery s | automobile.
 MT. Avery and his young grand | child were in the barn a the time and 1 thinking it was some of the Branford l farms buildings which were struck | went to the door to look out They l found the barn in flames. There wal
 no way of sending a message to the 1 power house to get the fire company 1 out dS none OI the Ie4epnOneS m Inat | section were working and there would 1 have been probability of savin 2 | the barn had there been a way of get | ting the company on the scene l Mir Avery estimates his loss 2 { | about s1 500 and 1t is partly covered | by insurance. For a time the sparkS | few wild, but the roofs were all wet l so no great apprehension for the house l was felt at any time.
 The storm did no other serious ds m | age in the borough.