| Show t 5 t G E SOS 111 W ft SMEV 1 r 1 tRt t tQ 1 tjn EfPESTS OF TODAY ARE NOT 3IORJD XCDEE51OCS Oil MORID VIOLENT THA3T THOSE OF FtMUIUDR DAYS I ox Tim ooMmAniY THERE is MUCH TIRLTTH ix THE OLDEST KVHABEPAXT STORIES THAT STORMS VEThE MUCH MORE SEVERE IK EIARXI R D VYS THD GRSBAT SEXTEaccxsR G > AJ > EI fI ThPre is an clement of truth in the I I cynical deciaiktiotn fiat we take a I i F bile and unccrfessed delight In the 1 griefs of our friends A like philosophy i euches us that we have a curious pride 4 In our uailonal calamities We may 1 then boast of the current year by I raison of Its d suruetlve Avinds Already Al-ready nearly 3vOO persons have betn killed a record surpassed only once t before in the last fourteen years Th j pocordi of mortality bade to 1SS2 lo j r its follows 1S35 410 J > 94 517 1803 4462 1892 448 3391 233 1S90 922 1S39 I r K3 18S8 547 18S7 1888 1SSS 212 1885 It 111 1884 6S3 1S83 509 1SS2 3uS193 r leads with its total of more than 4000 b It is i often asserted inded romiraniy r believed that i west Is peculiaily prone to tempestuous rlnda Certainly St Is a fsA3t that the extensive plains fa vw cyclonic disturbances Jeyond thw however the west Is not distinctly liable to gates as may be demonstrated by an examination of our history Another L assertion equally frequent and equally inaccurate Is to 4he effect that the j L changes In various met roloricaJ conditions con-ditions have rendered our country subject sub-ject to an Increased number 1 severe b winds In rpcent years It is obvious on r a moments consideration that unnumbered unnum-bered tempests may have raged In the t unsettled wildernesses of this continent t a few generations ago though our cords c-ords Lave no accoun of them But 1 r leaving this apart we llnd In the early i I history of our country the story of k Kales as violent and as numerous as f those of any later perio1 The New Enjfiivid memorial of Mcr i ton contains an account jf a terrific I f gale whica came upon + he Plymouth j cotonis soon after their landing itt It-t began very suddenly and wfch excessive r violence early in th < j morning of August Aug-ust 15 1635 ThIs wind blew down many houses uncovered divers others and J divers vessels were lost at sea It caut d the sea to swell in some places BO tihat it arose to twenty feE t right up and down and made many Indian to climb into trees for their safety 1 r blew down many hunurc thousands > > f r tree and caused a dreadful loss of life There were other storms o extraordinary f extraordi-nary extent and severity in 1721 5 ISOi ISIS 1821 1S36 141 1351 If59 1S50 audi 1869 The sorm of September i and October 38G wer particularly disastrous Th Oatoiur tempt cc erei all of the territory bounded by ova Scotia and the Mksieslppi on the east and west and extending from the Bortlvein extremes o Canada to our cotton slates The rain fell in torrents I for forty coruocuttlve hours Ac ord i Jng to the marking of numerous rain k gauges four inches of lutn f l in twentynine hours tfcen in the six hours followinir more tJiaja three and r a thlra inches of rain fell The total rainfall far Un forty hours was no lets thin 05 Inches and this astonishing amott over a vacit aea The floods I f tjtiuis occasioned are unpaaw5e4i in thiS country The less of x > rxn > enty amounted t many millions and the de I stmction of human life was fearfully large For a Ions time travel wes an 1 imposbibllifty within the Ptrick tract But the greatest of gale Known to this country was that which occur d September 23 1815 Judged by the amount of property and the population at that time i w beyond quesJon the most awful in American annals Moreover it was distinguished by peculiarities pecul-iarities s marked as t make it unique No cither tempest ejJhibited phenomena at once so awful and s surpnsnug TI tempest devastated all New England Eng-land although the learned men of the time were never able exactly to determine deter-mine either its limits o its center One contemporary account of i said that it a very violent at places separated L from one another by considerable intervals t in-tervals the intermediatt places being much letu vioaeintly afflicted It t viQelor amide I was evidently ev-idently cyclonic in part though by m means wholly s In many places it course through forests was clearly marked as If the trees had been cut I flown for ttoe making of a rod This result was caused by ttoe progress of a powerful vortex the great body of the ttmospiiere being comparatively undisturbed undis-turbed The ivhple extent of the coast 15ne was subject to its devastaiiin nn o Its ravages extended inland throughout Lie New England stsiteg although the leT part of Vermont suffered little But ven farther to the west aJon Ae Si Lawrence the storm raged with the utmost fury I is a singular fact iat the wind became violent thus fa to the northwest at the some hour a aJt > rg the < n despiite the fact tat r this would seem impossible from the direction of the wind Professor Farrars observations for tfiie latitude of Boston show that the gale was preceded by a rain for twenty I Tour hOI with a strong but nnt extraordinary i ex-traordinary wind from the northeast k In the memorable 23rd day of the montth early in the morning the direction I direc-tion of the wind changed to the east Ft then became gus and the rain f iescrndcd in intermittent showers Byes By-es the wind shifted toward the i south The rain almost ceased but the wind continually increased in violence 1 The unsuspecting citizens of Bocton were not aroused to any appred ont on-t possible catastrophes from the storm anvil about 9 oclock the ntq aut ocok in morning I iien the chimneys began toppling from their houses and persons in the street ipere forced to flee to ejcape harm Froii Jiis time the gale grew in power until S 030 and their fO an hour it raged svitth dreadful force The wind veered t t o southeast to south and the rain it atosedi Tfcfc sky was flecked withi 1 auds darting across tine heavens a l tremendous speed but In the traces t betoveen the sky shOe a serene blue t even when the hurricane was worst o Those who witnessed the scene declared f that the lower air was of most remarkable remark-able appearance it was much darkened x darken-ed by the unusual agitation being filled t with the leaves of trees and the like light substances which were raised to I a great height and there whirled about i In eddies Instead of being driven directly di-rectly forward a in a common storm Tio rivers raged and foamed like tee under the tornado and the e te torado ad spray l LUIS raised t the height of sixty to a hundred fee i the form of thin white k clouds which were drifted along In a L kind of wave form like snow in 8 violent vio-lent snow storm Travelers were driven t back by the force of the wind and r sought security behind trees and fences I was impossible for the stoutest f stout-est mac to stand firm in a place exposed t posed to the fun force of the wind The b pressure of the wind a that of a r rapid current of water Voices rais N to the loudest were not audible a 1 few feet away The wnter rose in Boston harbor fa above the high waiter mark two hours before the time for high water as specified speci-fied In the calendar I was indeed t most fortunate that the wind opposed the tide To this fact only can be attributed t at-tributed the escape of the port from f a appalling calamity Had the wind f and tide worked together they would have wrought stupendous destruction There w however enough of disaster dis-aster in the wind alone Rows and blocks of heavy structures were levelled f t the ground and most of those which remained standing were unroofed One of the most apparent evidences o the gales vigor wa exhibited i q aj the number of the trees prostrated I The like h never been seen on this I continent All roads were blocked This was true noc only of those through the forests but also of those tmugh te forts aso tose where the trees in the open country wher te tr which bordered the highways were so oflten thrown ass them that they were Impassable In all the towns from Boston to the smallest the streets became be-came garbage areas So comprehensive comprehen-sive was the wind that it gathered the autumn products from the gardens and spr them broadcast giving1 the vii lage thoroughfares h air of dissipated vegetable markets Boston lost many of its magnificent trees Some of those which were overturned over-turned measured from eight to twelve feet in circumference Throughout the country giant oaks which had borne the brunt of centuries tempests and I had hardly wavered were uprooted and the magnificent trunks twisted and shredded The ancient and esteemed I pear tree the pride of Danvers Massachusetts sachusetts which Governor Endicott transplanted was left a ruin by the I iconoclastic wind The great elm of Chelsea was another victim This lordly tree was seventeen feet in circumference cir-cumference and contained among its branches a pavilion in which thirty persons could sit down together The apple trees which in those days were the pride of the towns a well a of I the country were general pstrojvd < In the town of Dorchester there were I 5000 of them blown down Rhode Island u exposed t the tempests I tem-pests full wrath In Providence the loss o life was fearful and the destruction destruc-tion of property amounted to many millions The wind there came up the river directly without any obstacle to check Its course The result was the gathering 01 a massive tide which smote the place with the resistless sote plae riUes energy en-ergy o an avalanche The vessels were carried on it high over the wharves to be wrecked and left stranded here and there in th city streets A careful account of the events there states that early in the morning the wind was northeast but at about S it shifted to the southeast and soon began be-gan to blow violently continuing to increase in-crease until 10 when it became a hurricane hur-ricane All wa not confusion and dismay dis-may in the exposed region The tide impelled by the tempest overflowed the wharves vessels broken from their moorings in the stream and their fastenings at the wharves were seen driving with dreadful impetuosity toward to-ward the bridge which they swept away without G moments check to their progress and passed on to the head of the basin where they drove high up the bank Every exertion to protect property was rendered futile by the violence of the wind the rapid rise of the water and the falling of trees indeed these with the crashing o chimneys tumbling upon the houses and descending into the streets together to-gether with tiles and railings from the tops of buildings and many other species of dangerous missiles flying through the air rendered it perilous to appear in the streets All consideration considera-tion of property was soon forgotten in the more important one of selfpreser ration The tempest raged with increasing in-creasing violence the flood was overwhelming over-whelming the lower parts of the town stores and dwelling houses were tottering tot-tering on their foundations and then plunging into the deluge blended their shattered remains with the wrecks of vesselsthe whole passing with irresistible irresis-tible impetuosity in full view on the current to the head of the cove to join the accumulated mass o similar wrecks by ths time the water on the west side of the river had risen nearly to the tops of the lower windows of the houses and boats and scows struggling strug-gling with the maddened elements were seen removing the panicstricken inmates and on the east side an awful aw-ful torrent rolled through the main street by which boats masts bales of cotton and immense quantities of quanttes property pro-perty of every description were driven along with resistless force All the space was now one wide waste of tumultuous water I was such a scene of widesoread ruin and desolation wldeuread desolaton as I beggars all description Vessels of all kinds and in every position blended blend-ed promiscuously with carriages lumber lum-ber wrecks of buildings of every variety furniture and tens of thousands thous-ands of fragments from far and near all told the story of universal havoc and destruction At New London Connecticut at 10 oclock of the 23rd the tide was running run-ning four feet higher than i had ever been known to rise The water ran eight feet deep in the streets before the inhabitants realized the peril that threatened A curious phenomenon of the storm occurred here After the gale subsided there was a suecesslon of lively showers but the rain that fell was salt In the small village of Acton the damage to property amounts to 40000 nearly the total of the value at that time At Stonington Connecticut the I tide rose seventeen feet higher than the highwater mark and every vessel I at the wharves was wrecked The whole extent of the New England coast was one long line of disaster countless vessels going down The tempest raged fiercely off Cape Hat terse off the capes of Delaware at Sandy Hook Nantucket Shoals Cape Ann and on and in the Gulf stream I The gales deeds in the interior were like those on the seaboard A long strip of country in the interior was subject to the winds evils the breadth of the strip being sixty miles A current of hot air characterized the I wind at a distance from the ocean I The phenomena of the storm were I most marked on the coast The effect i of the inrollinsr brine was such taI ta-I all the was killed Not one te grass wa kle green staooc remained after the passing of the floods nor did any appear until the following spring where the herbage I was found t be o a new variety Where the sea water stood in the hoi lows its pernicious influence killed the trees and the wood turned dark Cedar Ce-dar pine and oak trees were the worst sufferers from the brine A like destruction de-struction with few exceptions was the lot of the shrubs and bushes which became be-came submerged The work of the flood was supplemented supple-mented by that of the mist The mist which rose and moved with the tide was borne far into the Interior by the winds power I was waite through the air in c volume and density that It was like a driven snow through whic it was difficult t distinguish objects ob-jects close at hand The effect of the mistcloude on the verdure and foliage I was potent After the storm it was found that the verdure and foliage had been blighted exactly as if by a keen rst I Not the least of the evils occasioned by tills peculiar tempest was the scarcity I scar-city of fresh water after the retiring I of the waves The coast lost the use of its wells and springs inasmuch a I all of them were salt Men and beasts were forced to depend I wee t de for water tO drnk on that which could be transported transport-ed from the Interior frm te lleriO Drinkable water bee a luxury and a subject for commercial activities The saltish quality cit the water continued common I ly until March of the year following a period of six months I was observed j that for a number of years a long term Q v o of dry weather would cause the wells and springs to become salt again The following has been determined a the cause of the gale The hurricane had its origin in the West Indies whence it moved northward north-ward at the rate ot twelve or fifteen miles per hour From SIt Borts i took l course westnorthwest to Turks island and by a curve convex t ewes e-wes ore t Boston nearly om the same meridian Before the arrival o thto hurricane at New England that devoted devot-ed region had been experiencing a stiff blow from the northeast for twemty four hours U hour hourCOUS |
