The New York herald., 1922-07-02
STORM PARALYZES
ACTIVITIES in CITY
ANDSTOPSSUBWAYS
Police Called to Safeguard
Crowds That Rush
to Cover.
ONLY ONE PERSON DEAD
Thousands of VacatiOnists
Miss Trains and Jam
Stations.
MANY CELLARS FLOODED
B. R. 7. Trains in Brooklyn
Tube Have to Halt, Also
West Side I.R.T. Lines.

Virtually all activities of New York
city were brought to an abrupt halt
yesterday about noon by one Of the
most terrific downpours of rain here
in many years. Resembling a cloud
burst, the deluge OF raindrops lasted
for almost an hour, preceded and sue
ceeded by a more gentle fall that aug
mented the troubles caused by the
heavier precipitation.
At IL o'clock the sky was so over
cast that the effect was that of night
The skyscrapers were lighted as on a
winters evening. Automobiles made
their way through the murk slowly
with headlights aglow. Then came the
rain, but the sky did not tighten for
about an hour.
In that hour the West Side subway
was flooded so that traffic was tied up
FOR long period. Cellars were flooded
in Manhattan and in Brooklyn. The
railroad stations were jammed with
passengers bent on starting their va
cations, hundreds missing their trains
because of the traffic conditions. The
matinees. and thousands of theater.
goers missed parts of the perform
ances. In the harbor shipping was
delayed and impeded. and accidents
were narrowly avoided.
unny Streets Flooded.
Many streets in the city were flooded
so that they were virtually impossible
for half an hour after the rain dimin-
ished. The surface car tracks were in
undated sewers overflowed. pedestrians
were marooned IN doorways. subway
exits, hotel corridors and wherever they
could find shelter. Hundreds of home
bound workers were stalled In surface
and elevated cars and the police were
called out in several instances to pre-
vent trouble. The city was, in effect.
brought to a stan1still. its business par
alyzed.
The congestion at the railroad sta
tions was particularly bad. Fortunately
the east side subway in Manhattan re-
mained in running order and took care
OF large crowds. On the west side the
reverse was the case. A large sewer.
overflowing into the tube, stalled almost
every train, forced thousands to rush to
the surface and elevated lines, and thus
blocked those means of transportation.
Strangely, only one death from the
storm was reported i'm the nelghbor-
hood of New York. There were several
minor accidents, however. The demand
for taxicabs was so great that almost
every one of these vehicles was In con-
stant movement, the streets in some
quarters being jammed with vehicular
traffic while there was not a pedestrian
in sight.
Apparently the greatest damage was
to the transportation lines, those In
Brooklyn suffering equally and even TO
greater extent than those i'm Manhat-
tan. Some of the lines in Brooklyn were
not In full operation until late last eve-
ming, six hours after the height of the
storm. In all parts OF Brooklyn there
were delays and annoyances, crowding
and inconvenience.
The flood was particularly heavy In
the tlatbush and Brownsville sections
or Brooklyn. The streets were running
rivers of water. through which auto
mobiles and street cars splashed their
way Proceeding on foot was impossi-
BILE in places. There were frequent and
long Interruptions of surface car service.
Heavy LOSS by Storm.
What the actual loss was will never
be known. for the reason that much OF
the damage was Of a personal nature.
ruined straw hats and summer finery.
The breaking of sewers and the flood
ing OF cellars undoubtedly caused
heavy loss, but there is no way OF
enumerating such losses The persons
who profited most from the storm were