The New York herald., 1922-06-13
Whirlwinds Struck at Diff
ferent Places in Freak
ish MalevOlence.
WESTCHESTER HIT WORST
Still Graphing Pelham Bay
and Ferris Wheel Crash Is
Under Inquiry.

The devils dance of little tornadoes
there were three or four separate
whiriwinds, rather than one-which
smashed and spiraled a disastrous
course through New York city and its
suburbs on Sunday evening took sixty
lives and destroyed millions Of dollars
worth of property in five minutes.
TIE list of known dead rose to
fifty-three last night and at least
seven persons are known to be miss
ing. with little hope remaining of their
having escaped drowning. Property
damage can be estimated only loosely,
but with 1000 valuable trees of the
park system and the public streets up
rooted or snapped like straws; with
at least as many more fine trees on
private grounds and estates wrecked
beyond all surgery: with costly plate
glass broken all over the city: with
roofs torn away and public and private
wire systems badly damaged, not to
mention the loss of hundreds of small
cOeAe7' eHCit dit chOdSH
to make the total loss formidable.
That the destruction was not moro ap-
palling was due principally to the aaton-
ishing brevty OF the storm or storms.
The lethal violence Of the wind. seventy
five miles an hour at It's severest. lasted
only few minutes, FIVE minutes here.
ten minutes there a sudden and terrific
blast. Had the gale ridden a quarter OF
an hour or longer the death list would
have filled several columns OF this news
paper in all probability. AS II was
! thousands of persons In sudden and des-
perate peril while at Sunday afternoon
pleasuring In Long Island Sound and It's
bays, in the Hudson River and the shall
low watercourses of Long Island and
Jersey managed to scramble ashore or
were In time TO be rescued.
storm Freaks Unparalleled.
They say that the spectacle along the
beaches Of Pelham Bay (the hardest hit
region of alb was unforgettabl. at a
little after o'clock on Sunday evening.
as no less than 1000 persons idling in
upward of 1000 rowboats and launches
fought for their lives. Boats were fairly
whirled out of the water and turned
upside down, and the waterside itself
was lined with sodden. insensible bodies
waiting for physician or death wagon
1t was a peculiar visitation. this nest
OF baby tornadoes one wholly without
parallel in the meteorological annals OF
New York II was a storm OF freakish
malevolence and OF wicked whimses.
There have been harder blows. as for
example. on Washington's Birthday.
1912, when the Federal weather sharrs
400 feet up on the Whitehall Building.
caught the storm speed at ninety-six
miles an hour and on few other agi-
tated occasions when the pace OF the
sale was between eighty and ninety
miles. But these storms. as a rule.
seemed to know where they were going
and roared straight from thence to
hence. Sundays. on the contrary. had
no mind of its own. II manifested It's
power curiously in restricted regions and
eccentric paths
1t was local affair. New York's Cor
New Jersey's) own aerial electric storage
battery freeing itself OF accumulated
energy. although it belonged to an evil
family which was let loose out - the
upper Mississippi Valley TO rage al the
way from the st. Lawrence River 20
Virginia but II picked and chose its
Fairgrounds hereabout. New Jersey II
bothered scarcely at all, sweeping high
over the flatlands and attaining mo-
mentum for a terrific assault against the
ramparts OF Manhattan at Piverside
Drive. tearing across this island AMI
turning UP the Sound TO harry West
chester as westchester has not been
punished In many years. From Thross
Neck 10 Mamaroneck and from the Hud
son River to Larchmont, that county OF
beautiful homes and pretty towns and
forested land was buffeted and battered
until the wreckage lay yesterday for
miles around.
Coney and Brighton Escape.
BROOKLYN was bor1bsrded in spots bat
Coney Island and Brighton. ofttmes the
targets of midsummer thunderstorns.
escaped even a hard blow, though there
was a frightened and hurried exodus o.
the masses that had been cooling of
upon those salubrious strands-trolley
and rapid transit cars overwhelmed.
roads choked with motor cars; little
pandemonIum by the seaside. Queens
was slapped hard here and there. mostly
In the way of ruined trees. roofs and
wire connections. but there was little
loss of life and a small record OF In
jured. And the same Of Staten Island.
II was Westchester. up and down and
across the middle. that suffered saw
aEely.
There were strange sights to the north
of New York when the daylight Of yes
terday morning revealed fully what de.
struction had been sown BY the twisters
OF the previous evening. IL was then
that the large loss of life was compre-
hended The police station at City
Island was piled with corpses. drawn
from Pelham Bay and elsewhere In the
Sound, and Fordham Morgue was SO
full Of the dead that a dozen had 70
be laid upon the floor. At both places
scores OF weeping women and Of men
ready to weep sought for their missing
relatives or friends. sometimes tragicsl.