The New York herald., 1921-10-01
FREAK GALE SWEEPS |
METROPOLITAN AREA
Skies Disgorge Deluge as
Electric Fireworks Kill
People and Do Damage.
25 DEGREE HEAT DROP
BIG CunaN Liner Forced by
Storm to Anchor in the
Hudson River.
200 TON CRANE WRECKED
Jersey City Base Ball Park
Loses Grand Stand-Trol-
ley Lines Stalled.
IS DEGREE HEAT DROP
200 TON CRANE WRECKED

The last day OF September got off
the calendar in a riot of electrical bonn
bardment and deluge that has been
seldom equalled in the weather annals
of the town. The temperature was
climbing and reached at 1 o'clock in
the afternoon the highest record for
the day, SO, when the southern hori-
zon began to darken and the mercury
to drop. The rain did not hit lower
Manhattan, where the official gauge is
on top of the Whitehall Building, until
3 o'clock
In less tina ntwo hours thereafter
the mercury had rushed subcellar-
wards from the record mark to 5S, or
twenty-five degrees, and the rain
gauge showed that slightly more than
an inch and a half had fallen on the
top of the observatory. and nobody
knows how much fell elsewhere. The
water dropped in sheets at time and
was fiattened almost to the horizontal
by a gale that was recorded at So
miles, but was much more than that
in the open bay and the wooded bor-
oughs.
Similar storms battered the nearby
and remote regions OF New Jersey and
Long Island, as well as the western
parts of New York State and Pennsyl-
vania. Several persons were killed by
lightning, much damake done to prop
erty. trolley lines stalled because of the
floods and trees uprooted by the blasts.
Sudden and in some instances phe-
nomenal drops in temperature marked
the progress of the series of vivid and
freakish tempests across New Jersey
and the boroughs Of this city. At Pater-
son the temperature took a heavy tumble
of 23 degrees in half nm hour. In Eliza
beth the maximum temperature was 80
and at s o'clock last night had gone
down to 60.
Big Liner In Danger.
The new Cunarder Sythia, on her Sec
ond trip to this port, arrived off the end
of her pier at the foot Of West Four
teenth street when the blast, roaring up
the Hudson River, was at its fiercest
and the rain thick as the worst fog Capt.
Prothero ever ran into. The tugs escort
ing her had to abandon the job, and she
war forced broadside on to the gale, nose
towrad shore and sent heeling to port.
The skipper backed out into the river
and let his mudhook go and there the
big ship stayed until the sky spigot was
turned off and the wind. from the south
west, had died down. The liner had a
list to port and her starboard decks were
Full nf l,,t aI In
flow of rain.
The Jersey City Ball Park was
wrecked by the gale, two sections of the
grandstand being torn off and fences
blown down. OnIya few persons were
near the grandstand and nobody was
hurt
Lightning struck the eighty foot flag
pole in ront of the Beach Club at Sea-
bright. sending big splinters through the
club windows and into the swimming
pool. A fragment struck Rufus Larus.
one of the guards. stunning him. He
was revived later.
Two houses on tine Rumson Drive
were struck by lightning. Fishermen,
unable to make landing on the beach
because of the high surf piled up by the
gale. put to sea and set up distress sig
mails, which brought rescuers.
n SVV tOU travelling Ciabc, cAAty ittt
high. was blown into the Hudson River
at the Lackawanna tracks at Pier /,
Hoboken, and carried away signal
tower at the end of the bulkhead. The
crane was valued at $4,000
The tower Of the barn OF Colgate Hoyt
at Centre Island. l.. l., was hit by light
ming and tn Oyster Bay fire department
turned out in force to save $4,000 worth
of antique furniture recently stored In
the building. ! Mr. Hoyt himself was
working with his employees In the rain
fighting the blaze when the firemen ar
rived. They got it under control and
the furniture was saved.
The storm In Philadelphia and tIaste-
ern Pennsylvania generally sent the tenn
perature from 81 degrees down to'6 64 In
less than an hour.
Lightning struck a trolley car. setting
It on fire and injuring several passsen-
gers. Charles Carter of this city. while
automobiling near York, Pa, was killed
when the blast hurled his car into a
ditch.