Evening star., 1924-06-09
RECORD GALE WHIPS
CHESAPEAKE BEACH
Wrecks Homes, Lifts Auto, Up
roots Trees. Ends Picnics,
Damages Nearby Crops.
TOPS TORN FROM MACHINES
Falling Timber Misses Infant and
Mother by Inches.
nv a Staf Correspondent.

nv StaT Correspondent.
CHESAPEAKE BEACH, Md, June
"A cloudburst accompanied by
wind of tornado-like intensity struck
Chesapeake Beach yesterday after
noon shortly before 4 o'clock and
within ten minutes wrecked scores
OF homes and barns in the contigu-
Gus territory, uprooted thousands of
trees and did damage which will run
into thousands of dollars.
A dozen automobiles OF Washing
ton motorists parked in the shady
grove surrounding the Casino Hotel
here either were completely demol-
ished or badly damaged by falling
trees, and their occupants narrowly
escaped serious injury as the timbcrs
crashed though the tops of the ma
chimes. No one was injured, as far as
could be ascertained.
The terrific wind which blew at a
velocity estimated at seventy to
eighty miles an hour, tore the piles
from under that portion of the board
walk which connects the main sec
tion with a crabhousc on the north.
That section of the boardwalk was
laid to the waters edge and a score
OF persons were marooned in the
crabhouse. Roofs were ripped from
several concession houses on the
boardwalk. and branches torn from
trees hundreds of yards away were
deposited on the boardwalk and in
Chesapeake Bay.
District Automobiles Wrecked.
The principal damage at the beach
was done to the automobiles of Wash
inGton motorists who journeyed
here to spend Sunday. Some cars.
sNh
they crashed to the earth, had their
tops torn away by the terrific wind.
Virtually all cottages under con-
atrCction at North Chesapeake Beach
were blown from their foundations.
IlafterS and a large quantity of tim
Der used in building the cottages
were blown out into the bay.
A number of farmhouSes and barns
in Calvert and Anne Arundel Coun-
ties. which lay directly in the path
ever struck this section of southern
Maryland--were leveled to the ground.
The houses destroyed were frail
frame structures and occupied by
negroes.
Two large barns on George H.
Boyd's farm, on the state road be-
tween Mount Harmony and Chesa-
peake Beach, containing his 1923 crop
of tobacco. were demolished. A large
harm on the farm of Harry Owings,
miles from here, also was destroyed.
Picnics Hastily Ended.
The storm approached the beach in
two sections and with such sudden
swiftneSS that the several thousand
piCnickerS here did not have time to
reach shelter before the torrent of
rain soaked them.
One portion of the storm, which
apparently had separated from the
main section about twenty miles
away, following the Patuxent River
as far as Lower Marlboro, swept
into the beach from the southwest.
The main portion came from the
northwest and merged with the
southwest section a few miles beyond
here.
For several hours after the storm.
workmen were busy clearing fallen
trees from the roads. and cutting
away those which had fallen on the
automobiles.
One of the machines which was
completely demolished by an uproot-
ed tree was parked near the Chesa-
peake Beach railroad terminus here.
The tree fell directly across the CEN
ter of the car. coupe.
Infant Has Narrow Escape.
A man. his wife and an infant, were
seated in high-priced touring car
in the rear of the Casino Hotel when
two trees crashed down on it, wreck
ing the top of the machine. The oc-
cupantS suffered a severe shock, but
were uninjured.
machine parked on the road bor-
dering the hotel grove was lifted
several feet from the ground by the
wind and dropped into a nearby gull