Norwich bulletin., 1921-07-11
PUTNAM

A thunder storm of unusual severity l swept over Putnam early Saturoay morning leaving in it's wake buildings damaged by lightning, street noooed, ciogged drainage pipes, gullied; banks and | beaten down gardens. Beginning at two l o'clock with occasional ruurblings of taunder that gave indication of what was coming, the storm increased intensity until between and 8 o'clock 1t ragged at it's fullest For more than an hour the lightning flashed almost necessarily the crashes of deafening thunder came one upon the other, and rain and hail beat down in torrents. Gradually the storm wore eff, and city officials. railroad enn- pioyes, and telegraph and telephone line
 men hurried about the city preparatory to repairing the damage caused.
 As a result of the storm, one of the busiest men in Putnam Saturday was
 Frederick Dumas, commissioner of
 streets. From all parts of the city came
 reports of washouts, of clogged gutters
 and miniature floods. All of these had to be given immediate attention. In or
 der to make the storm-swept street pass able as quickly as possible, MT. Dumas put extra workmen on the job, and by
 noon the worst places mad been repaired.
 Mayor Allie W. Marcy, Otis Fox, chair
 man of the city highway oommiRtee,
 and other members of the city council 1 travelled about the city supervising the
 repair work and doing all that they
 could to get things back 10 normal condi- tion.
 Woodstock avenue from ---rsaall to Green street was covered with dirt and gravel brought down by the torrents that turned the avenue into river during the worst parts of the downpour. Under | the Front street bridge the gutter out lets became clogged, and the street and trolley tracks under two feet of water. The railroad banking at the bridge on the north side of Front street was cut al most completely away. A gully ten feet
 deep, and as many feet across was cut
 by the rush of surface water, and the
 ashes and gravel from this were carried
 into Front street and deposited At one
 point the sidewalk was covered with a , three foot drift of this sediment. and the
 tracks or the Connecticut company were : four inches below the muody surface. , large force of railroad employees sci about cleaning up the damage, and bS Saturday night had practically completed the task. A siding of the New Haver railroad was undermined, but this wa! soon repaired.
 Main street in front of the Victor, ] theatre was under foot of water afte 7 the storm has passed, but city employe
 soon cleaned out drains, and the wate I followed on through the natural channels . The damage by washouts on Oak Hill - Grand View and other high spots of tn e city was not great. Mayor Marcy, com : menting upon this after the storm. sai s that many of the streets in. these sec 0 tions of the city have been oiled this yea k for the first time,s consequently the wate a did not carry away the dirt street as ha l. happened in years past. The oil serve n as a binding that prevented washouts.
 While the shower was at it's neigh l. several places were struck by lightning l. The worst damage was done at tn II Grove street greenhouses and the adjoin 2 ing barn and home of the manager, Ot e to B. Hermanson. Here three bolts c n lightning struck barn simuItaneousl, IS ripping of the caves. splinterins rafteri e mangling the side walls, and sending i- shower of timber crasling through tn V glass roof of the greenhouse Nearl Is thirty of tine large panes of glass wer 4s shattered. After wrecking the north en 1t of the Hermanson barn the lightnin t. jumped to the telephone wires, and CT q tered the house. Mir and Mrs. Herman d son were in: the kitchen. when the ho r, struck. A ball of fire rolled into tn le room, junped to the gas stove. pulled ot to the piping and finally grounded. Tn telephone wire was burned in two. an -e the -transmissfon box on nearby po $. was completely demolished.
 ,e The lightning 'lere. aside from doin " damage that is in the neiEhborhood " s40o, played a few pranks and cut son