New-York tribune., 1922-07-19
Nearly 2L-Inch Rainfall
in Three Hours; Water
Pours Into West Side
tubes, Stalling Train,
Brooklyn Line Also
Put Out Of Service
Bolt Near Babylon Costs
One Man a Leg; Blast
Injuries Six Firemen

9S''Soii heaviest transform
iashed the city last night, flooding the
tubes Of the West Side subway and
causing tie-up of two hours between
Chambers Street and Times SQUARE
Water gushed through the street graf
ings and flowed in torrents down the
stairways. Traffic was blocked for
short time on the Fourth Avenue line
IN Brooklyn because of flooded tracks,
Nearly two and half inches of rain
fell within three hours.
The tie-up began soon after 8
o'clock. Traffic on the northbound local
tracks was resumed at 1915, and on
the northbound express tracks at 1927,
according to officials of the INTERIOR
ough. Traffic on the southbound local
tracks was resumed at 1927.
Ihe downpour caused the mercury to
crop nearly seventeen degrees The
lowest temperature Of the day-6s de-
grees-was recorded at 7 o'clock, when
the storm was at its height. At $3.50
O'Clock the mercury lowered at the 85-
degree mark. The temperature had
risen from 68 degrees to 72 at 10:3O
o'clock last night.
Staten Island Inundated
The heaviest damage done by the
storm was on Staten Island Countless
sewers were overhowed and MANY
cellars stocked with merchandise in
undated Damage was estimated at
$75,000
One mans leg was blown off and six
firemen were injured, one probably
mortally, when lightning struck the
feed house on William H. Hirshfield's
farm, near Babylon, L. l. The injuries
line in subcellar under the building
Nelson E. Peck, OF Brooklyn, who
was visiting the Hirshfelds, en-
deavored to extinguish the fire and
was in the feed house when the ex-
ploeion occurred. He was blown
through a door and his right leg
severed. He was taken to South Side
Hospital in critical state from loss
of blood.
The injured firemen are William
Evans, Thomos Dickinson, William AL
bin, Russell Taylor, Charles Ward and
John Graft. Albin's condition was said
at the hospital last night to be seri-
Gus. The others will recover. All are
members of Babylon Hook and Ladder
Company No. 1.
When the storm was at it's height
lightning shattered heavy brick col
umn atop Public School No. at
West End Avenue and Eighty-second
Street A shower of brick and timber
fragments fell to the street, and part
of the debris tore jagged hole in the
roof of the building. No one was in
the school at the time.
When the trains became stalled pas
sengers sweltered in the crowded cars
for +;r,o hu% 11y% uara r,o
together ard emptied, the passengers
walking from car to car until they
reached the platform Of the nearest
station.
A wrecking crew with pumps was
rushed to the tubes after Interborough
officials had been notified of the condi-
tion Of the tracks by the motorman of
the first train to swash its way through
the flooded section. 1t was then de-
cded to put shuttle service In oper-
alton between Chambers Street and
Houston Street on the northbound
tracks and between Times Square and
tracks.
Crush at Times Square
Police reserves from downtown pre-
cincts were sent to local stations be-
tween Chambers and Fourteenth Street
and assisted in keeping the platforms
as free from congestion as possible.
The greatest congestion occurred at the
Times Square station, when homeward-
bound New Workers, informed that the
West Side line was tied up, began surg
ing through the underground maze to
board the shuttle trains for Grand
Central and continue the trip north
ward via the East Side subway.
Chief EDCi0aar RidUpWaU of the
Transit Commission said that survey
termine whether the sewers in the
vicinity of Houston Street are ade-
quate. "If find that they are not" he
said, "I will make such recommends
tions as will in my opinion, remedy
the situation"
The Flatbusn section Of Brooklyn
suffered considerably from the storm.
Water in great volume swept into
hundreds of cellars, and in some of
them reached depth of six feet.
Overlooked sewers in the section buried
streets and sidewalks under three feet
of water. In East Seventeenth Street,
between Newkirk and Foster avenues,
Flatbush, the water rose so high that
eight automobiles were put out of COM
mission and temporarily abandoned.
The greatest damage done by the
storm on Staten Island was at Staple
ton, Mariners Harbor and New Brigh-
ton. Many residents described the rain
as the heaviest the island had expert
enced in twenty years.
One person was killed and five over
come by the heat in and near the city
yesterday.