Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1921-06-24
terrific GALE
VISITS VILLAGE
Disabled Wires Leave Brattle-
boro Dark on Busy Night
Numerous Large Trees Uprooted-About
40 Telephone Circuits Put Out Of Com
mission.

mission.
BrattlebOro was not quite blown off
the map Saturday evening. but it had its
narrowest escape in recent years. q ter
rifle wndstorm sweeping down the Con-
nccticut valley at 6 o'clock with such
violence that it whirled things about
promiscuously, uprooted large trees.
broke down many limbs and telephone
wires. put the electric lighting system
out of business for the entire evening
and made people think what a real cy-
clone must be. Nobody was injured and
the property damage was not heavy, but
the blow was 'pippin" while it lasted.
and the resulting loss of electric light
service and reduction of telephone scrv-
ice caused not little inconvenience.
The wind came up almost without
warning, and while there were few
dark clouds the sky was not black and
only small amount of rain fell. 1t was
most severe near the river and was not
noticed particularly more than n quarter
of mile on either side of the river. The
first that was noticed in this village was
a cloud of dust that filled Main street so
full that one scarcely could see across
the street. For a few minutes it in
creased in intensity. and people had to
take hold of things to keep on their feet
In short time calm was restored.
and then it was discovered that the
streets were Uttered with both dead and
green branches and that many telephone
wires were broken down by falling trees
and that the electric light service was
crippled
Merchants were not especially pleased
| that the storm came on Saturday night,
but they looked at the matter philOSoph-
cally and reSOrted to tallow candles and
any other kind of candles that could be
| procured. Lamps and lanterns also
| " fp,.tttV ntn
enough to have gas connection. Bust
ness was conducted after fashion on an
| Old-tme basis, but most of the stores
closed earlier than usual. The moving
picture theatres We're unable to do bust
ness and refunded money to purchasers
of tickets. 1t was amusing to specta-
! tors to see the BARRIERS trying to work by
amplight, but not very pleasing to the
| BARRIERS.
At the power plant of the Connecticut
River Power Co. it was said that broken
inSulators also tree on the line between
the Vernon dam and Brattleboro, made
it impossible to furnish current for Brat
Gas & Electric Co., furnished light a
few minutes from the West Dummerston
plant. but it was found that only a part
of the system was working. so it was
shut off for repairs. The light was fur
nshed from the Vernon power plant
ABOUT l N CLOCK tnat nlgnt.
About 40 local telephone lines were
broken down, but all of them have been
repaired. A tree blown down near the
Episcopal church. carried. down q tele-
phone pole on Main street near George
Fl. C1app's house. a tree near the po-
lice station on Elliot street broke down
and carried with it telephone wires. while
other wires were broken by trees fall
ing in c. \. Boyden's yard on Linden
street, the lower road south of Linden
Lodge, and near VI. VI. fuckers house
on Chase street. \ large tree at the
second green of the Country club course
was blown down. None of the trunk
lines were broken.
Between | and > o'clock Sunday morn
ing Chief of Police George Wilson saw
that Vaughan K Burnctt's iewelry store
was full of smoke. lie notified Mr..
Vaughan, also the fire department. and
! the fire truck went out. but was not
used. 1t was found that the switch for
the motor in the optical department had
been left on. and for some reason the
motor became stalled. No fire resulted