Pelham Was Hammered by Three Successive Hurricanes in Six Weeks in 1893

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The tiny little Town of Pelham has been in the bull's-eye of numerous massive storms, not the least of which is the recent storm known as "Super Storm Sandy" that pounded the region on October 28, 2012.  Another brutal example occurred in 1938, when Pelham was devastated by the massive hurricane that came to be known as the "Long Island Express," one of the most violent and destructive storms ever to pound the northeast.  Nothing, however, compares to the 1893 hurricane season when three successive hurricanes rolled over Pelham during a six-week period from late August to early October.  

The three storms brought massive damage to the region.  Each was so powerful as to merit a name.  The first, on August 24, was the "1893 New York Hurricane" also known as the "Midnight Storm."  The second, four days later, was the "1893 Sea Islands Hurricane."  The third, on October 13-14, was the so-called "Charleston Hurricane."  Today's article addresses all three.  

The "1893 New York Hurricane," Also Known as the "Midnight Storm"

On August 22, 1893, a category 3 hurricane brewing in the Atlantic moved toward Cape Hatteras, North Carolina then took a turn due north toward New York City.  The storm weakened to category 1 and smashed into western Long Island on August 24 with sustained winds of 85 miles per hour.  This clearly was the most devastating of the three hurricanes to pound Pelham and the surrounding region during the six-week period from late August to early October.

The hurricane did most of its damage within fifty miles of New York City including the tiny little town of Pelham.  In a single 24-hour period, the storm dropped 3.82 inches of rain, shattering previous records.  According to one account:

"The worst of the damage was reportedly confined to a 50 mi (80 km) area surrounding New York City. In a 24-hour period, 3.82 in (97 mm) of precipitation fell, breaking the daily rainfall record. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses accompanied the severe impact. Low-lying areas of the city, particularly those near the coast, were flooded. Roofs and chimneys were ripped off buildings and windows were broken in many homes and businesses. In Central Park, 'More than a hundred noble trees were torn up by the roots, and branches were twisted off everywhere.' The park was devastated and thousands of dead birds fell to the ground after being washed out of, or drowned in, their nests. . . . The storm took the lives of 34 sailors as vessels were blown ashore and men swept overboard. The tugboat Panther, towing two coal barges, was wrecked; 17 crew members perished and three lived.  High winds brought down telegraph wires and left the city almost entirely cut off from communication with outside locations. At Coney Island, the storm completely destroyed many buildings, walkways, piers, and beach resorts. Brighton Beach was hit particularly hard. The raging seas swept inland, washing out tracks of the Marine Railway.  Bathing houses were moved a great distance by the cyclone. Near the Sheepshead Bay, Emmons Avenue was heavily damaged. Further to the east, at Greenport, numerous yachts were wrecked and scattered. . . .  At Brooklyn, still an independent city from New York, houses were dismantled and uprooted trees blocked streets. Damage was widespread throughout the area and flood waters reached waist-high levels."

Source:  "1893 New York Hurricane" in Wikipedia -- The Free Encyclopedia (visited Feb. 5, 2017) (footnotes omitted).  

The "1893 Sea Islands Hurricane"

On August 27 ,1893, a massive hurricane now known at the "1893 Sea Islands Hurricane" slammed into the east coast with Savannah, Georgia in the bull's-eye.  The storm had sustained winds of 120 miles per hour (a category 3 hurricane) and drove a storm surge estimated between sixteen to thirty feet.  Experts continue to debate whether the storm reached category 4 and whether the storm surge reached thirty feet.  The damage, as one would expect, was enormous.  Up to two thousand people died.   

The storm proceeded quickly up the east coast and struck Pelham and the surrounding region at about 4:00 a.m. on Monday, August 28.  Damage in the region was immense.  Indeed, several lives were lost in the New York City region and others died along the Hudson River when tow boats were destroyed.  

The storm toppled telegraph poles and wires in the Pelham and Mount Vernon region, cutting off communication.  The long distance telephone wires between New York and Boston were destroyed in the area of Eastchester, adjacent to North Pelham.  In Pelham Bay, three yachts were cast upon the rocks.  On City Island a 70-foot steel steamship yacht was completely wrecked and thrown ashore on Green's flats at City Island.  Nearby a 30-foot yacht was found off New Rochelle floating keel up.  

In New York City, the high winds "swept away nine houses in Bleecker street."  At Gratton Street,. four four-story houses were lifted from their foundations.  According to one report:  "Along the Coney island beach everything is swept away.  On George Tilhouse's grounds the buildings in which the Bolivian Indians were sleeping were blown down.  No one was hurt.  The southeast portion of the Sea Beach hotel was torn off.  Every pane of glass in the building was broken.  All amusement machines were unable to stand the pressure and fell."


News reports make clear that trees were toppled throughout the region.  The 1893 Sea Islands Hurricane made its mark in Pelham and the surrounding region.

The "Charleston Hurricane" of 1893

In the early hours of Friday, October 13, 1893, a powerful category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour slammed into Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  The hurricane, that came to be known as the "Charleston Hurricane," moved across North Carolina and proceeded northward where late that day and in the early morning hours of Saturday, October 14, it passed to the west of New York City as an extra tropical storm.

U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Season

Summary of the 1893 Atlantic Hurricane Season.

"RUINS IN BLEECKER STREET, BROOKLYN." Showing a Portion

of the Devastation of the 1893 Sea Islands Hurricane.  Source:  SHIPWRECKS

MARK THE STORM'S PATH, N.Y. Herald, Aug. 30, 1893, p. 5, cols. 3-4.

"WRECK IN KNICKERBOCKER AVENUE, BROOKLYN." Showing a Portion

of the Devastation of the 1893 Sea Islands Hurricane.  Source:  SHIPWRECKS

MARK THE STORM'S PATH, N.Y. Herald, Aug. 30, 1893, p. 5, cols. 3-4.

"PIER WRECK, ASBURY PARK." Showing a Portion

of the Devastation of the 1893 Sea Islands Hurricane.  Source:  SHIPWRECKS

MARK THE STORM'S PATH, N.Y. Herald, Aug. 30, 1893, p. 5, col. 2.

"FOUNDER BRADLEY ON THE BEACH." Showing a Portion

of the Devastation of the 1893 Sea Islands Hurricane.  Source:  SHIPWRECKS

MARK THE STORM'S PATH, N.Y. Herald, Aug. 30, 1893, p. 5, col. 1.

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"DETAILS OF THE CYCLONE.
-----
IT WAS FAR REACHING AND DESTRUCTIVE IN EFFECTS.
-----
Immense Damage Done by It in Towns, Villages and Country -- Swept Along the Atlantic Coast -- Lives Lost.
-----

New York, Aug. 28.  --  A violent storm swept the city and surrounding country from midnight until 8 o'clock this morning.  The origin was in a cyclone in the West Indies, and then swept along the Atlantic coast, with the storm center well inland, reaching out in every direction for a distance of over 1500 miles.  From observations it is surmised this cyclone has gone westward and make the way out to sea through the St. Lawrence valley.  New York was visited by the eastern portion of the storm.

At Philadelphia the velocity of the wind was 36 miles and at Atlantic City 40 miles.

Telegraph wires east from Mount Vernon, N.Y., are down and all communication is cut off.

At Eastchester the damage was great.  The long distance telephone between New York and Boston was badly wrecked.  

In Pelham Bay three yachts have gone on the rocks.

Reports from City Island say a 70-foot steel yacht is ashore on Green's flats, and is a complete wreck.  A 30-foot yacht was sighted this morning off New Rochelle floating keel up.

At 6.30 the wind swept away nine houses in Bleecker street.  The houses were unoccupied.

At Gratton street four four-story houses were lifted from their foundations.  

Along the Coney island beach everything is swept away.  On George Tilhouse's grounds the buildings in which the Bolivian Indians were sleeping were blown down.  No one was hurt.  The southeast portion of the Sea Beach hotel was torn off.  Every pane of glass in the building was broken.  All amusement machines were unable to stand the pressure and fell.

The cars of the Brighton elevated and Marine roads are not running to-day on account of the storm.  All telegraph and telephone wires are down, and it ws very hard to communicate with people in the city.

All railroad communication between the New Jersey coast resorts and Philadelphia is cut off.  The tracks of the Amboy division of the Pennsylvania railroad are under four feet of water between Bay Head and Berkley.  Ten feet of iron pier at Long Branch were swept away.  Hundreds of acres of corn and tomatoes are ruined.

A part of Hond Wave pier at Ocean Grove was washed away.  

At Asbury Park and Ocean Grove the breakers were the biggest ever witnessed.  

In Philadelphia Anthony Vanderallee and an unknown Italian laborer were killed by being struck by swinging electric wires.  A number of horses were killed from the same cause."

Source:  DETAILS OF THE CYCLONE -- IT WAS FAR REACHING AND DESTRUCTIVE IN EFFECTS -- Immense Damage Done by It in Towns, Villages and Country -- Swept Along the Atlantic Coast -- Lives Lost, The Galveston Daily News [Galveston, TX], Aug. 30, 1893, p. 1, col. 6 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  

"HAVOC AT MOUNT VERNON.
-----
Many New Buildings Dismantled -- Telephone Wires Down.

MOUNT VERNON, N. Y., Aug. 29. -- The severest windstorm of the season struck this city about 4 o'clock this morning, and played havoc with trees, telephone and telegraph wires.  The Western Union wires east from this place are down and all communication is shut off.

Many new buildings have been dismantled, so that they will have to be torn down and rebuilt.  The telephone wires between this place and New York City are all down, and the postal telegraph wires are in but little better condition.

At Eastchester, a suburb east of this city, the damage is greater than here.  The long-distance telephone line between New York and Boston has been badly wrecked.

Boats have been wrecked in Eastchester Creek, and in Pelham Bay three yachts have gone on the rocks.  Reports from City Island say that a 75-foot steam yacht has gone ashore on Green's Flats and is a complete wreck.

Residence Park, at New Rochelle, also suffered severely from the storm, the handsome shade trees, the pride of its residents, being down in every direction.

A 30-foot yacht was sighted this morning off the New Rochelle shore floating keel up.  No particulars as to the extent of the damage to yachts and shipping in general can be learned."

Source:  HAVOC AT MOUNT VERNON -- Many New Buildings Dismantled -- Telephone Wires Down, The Evening World [NY, NY], Aug. 29, 1893, p. 2, col. 5 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  

"WE GOT A TASTE OF THE STORM.
-----
Wires Were Prostrated All Around by the Approaching Southern Hurricane.
-----
COMMUNICATION WAS CUT OFF.
-----
So Bad Was the Demoralization That No Messages Could Be Got Through from the South
-----
HARD RAIN IN THIS CITY.
-----

The wind which blew the Vigilant to final victory and last evening howled in fierce eddying easterly puffs across Manhattan Island was the advance guard of a hurricane which is sweeping over the eastern part of the United States, and should be due in full force in this city soon after daybreak to-day.

It may be more violent than the hurricane of last August on land as well as upon sea.

The evidence which it has sent in advance of its coming tends to show that it is a howler.

The wires are all down.  There has been no telegraphic communication with Washington or the South since eight o'clock last evening.  There is now no communication with Baltimore or Philadelphia.  Pittsburgh and Harrisburg are isolated and there is no reaching New Orleans or Louisville even by way of Chicago.  The United press late last night made this report: -- 

The storm has prostrated the wires in all directions.  Not a wire is working to Washington.  Philadelphia and Baltimore are also cut off, and the few wires working to Chicago and to Eastern points are in such a condition as to make them practically useless most of the time.

The night manager of the Western Union reported at midnight:  -- 

We have had the greatest trouble south of Philadelphia after eight o'clock.  We have nothing south of that point working at present.  The wires are more or less affected in all directions.  The storm is very severe and similar to the last southern cyclone.

WIRES DOWN ALL AROUND.

The Postal Telegraph Company also reported a complete prostration of wires South and Southwest.  It had communication with Chicago, but nothing could be heard from any point south of Pennsylvania.

It is practically impossible to get any data from which an idea can be formed as to the velocity of the hurricane.

It was central near Savannah, Ga., yesterday morning, and the barometer was about 29.  The storm was then moving in a northwesterly direction, and up to six o'clock last evening appeared not to have made any easterly movement, as did the August hurricane.  A telegram from Port Jervis, N.Y., shows that an easterly gale is blowing and that the barometer fell 20 points between eight and nine o'clock.  Reports from the Jersey coast show that the storm has not yet passed out to sea, so that it is thought to have been very violent inland.  

It has probably swept up through Georgia, Virginia and Central Pennsylvania, and to-day will pass out on to the Atlantic.  All coastwise shipping should remain in the harbor.  

The storm, which is expected to be more violent to-day, was furious last night in the city.  It was accompanied by half a gale and a heavy downpour of rain.  The wind at Sandy Hook blew nearly forty miles an hour, and the waves dashed over the sea wall at the Battery.

Nearly all the boats which took parties to the yacht race reported that they had a rough time getting back.

HAD A ROUGH TIME.

The stout little government tug the Ordnance, which went to the race with a party of army officers and their families on board, had a rough and tumble experience a mile or so from Sandy Hook.

She rolled and pitched violently and shipped several seas.  Those on board were glad to find refuge in the cabin from the water which scampered over the vessel's decks.

Yachtsmen were thankful that the storm held off as long as it did, and frankly said that if it had been an hour earlier in coming some of them would not have returned at all.

The wind blew down many signs and chimneys throughout the city, and uprooted a number of trees in the higher parts of the town.  Cellars were flooded in the lower lying districts.

Mary McDonnald, thirty-five years old, of No. 322 East Sixty-first street, while passing No. 316 East Sixty-first street last night, was struck by a piece of chimney which was blown down by the storm.  She was taken to Presbyterian Hospital.

HARD RAIN IN HARLEM.

Harlem got the broadside of the storm, which seemed to have vented its greatest fury on that part of the city.  It not only rained in Harlem, it poured.  Riverside avenue at eleven o'clock last night was a lake supplied from the door stoops of the rest of Harlem.  The water was ankle deep.  Along Sixth avenue stores, particularly those on the west side, were flooded.  All the gutters ran full and there were no means of outflow for the water that seemed to be blown from Central Park.

At street crossings all sewers were full.  To cross a street meant a wade up to ankles or knees.  The wind was so strong from the east that shopkeepers on the west side of the streets were compelled to bar their doors toward that point.

DAMAGE BY THE WIND.

An Edison electric light chimney at No. 117 West Thirty-ninth street was blown down at ten o'clock.  A large tree in front of No. 53 Charlton street fell and a tall board fence at No. 30 Sullivan street.  The hats of many persons coming out of Niblo's Theatre were wafted away and a mighty scramble after them followed.  

On all the cross streets the water roared down the areaways.  On the elevated railroad platforms passengers held on to the braces and to each other to keep from being blown over.  And all the while the gale blew the falling waters westward and flooded every place that had an aperture which faced the east.

A two story frame house in the course of erection in Ralph avenue, Brooklyn, was blown down by the wind.  It belonged to Henry Merkin, whose loss is $3,000.  A huge tree in Court street, near Third place, Brooklyn, was blown to the street and stopped traffic for some time.

The trolley wire of the De Kalb avenue, Brooklyn, line was blown to the street about twenty minutes before one o'clock this morning. making a circuit with various car rails at the junction of Fulton street and Court street and Myrtle avenue.  Four cars were passing at the time, and there were four loud reports.  The passengers jumped out.  One woman fainted, but no one ws hurt."

Source:  WE GOT A TASTE OF THE STORM -- Wires Were Prostrated All Around by the Approaching Southern Hurricane -- COMMUNICATION WAS CUT OFF -- So Bad Was the Demoralization That No Messages Could Be Got Through from the South -- HARD RAIN IN THIS CITY, New York Herald, Oct. 14, 1893, p. 12, col. 1.  

"DEATH AND DESTRUCTION.
-----
Following in the Wake of the Devastating Storm of Last Week.
-----
Reports Coming In
-----
Tell of Vessels Wrecked, Attended With Terrible Loss of Life.
-----
The Storm Widespread.
-----
It Raked the Coast, and Going Inland, Made Havoc on the Lakes.
-----

NEW YORK, Oct. 15. -- The third manifestation this season of the pernicious activity of the West Indian hurricane factory reached New York late Friday night, and passed away to the west early yesterday morning.  The maximum velocity reached by the wind anywhere near New York seems to have been attained at Sandy Hook, where the southeast gale blew sixty-four miles an hour at ten o'clock Friday night.  In the city itself forty-eight miles were registered.

Many of the yachts which were drawn out in such large numbers by the cup races, as well as others that had never left their supposedly safe anchorages, suffered severely by Friday night's storms.  The worst accident so far reported was probably that to the Water-witch, belonging to the Jersey City Yacht Club.  It was driven ashore at Communipaw, and received severe damages, the exact extent of which is not yet known.

At Pelham Bay several boat houses were damaged, and that owned by J. W. Lorillard was carried out to sea.  An unknown schooner ws driven on to the rocks near Throgg's Neck, and her crew were obliged to abandon her.  The sloop yacht Frederick Black went ashore at Rockaway Shoals.  Her crew were saved with some difficulty by the Coney Island life saving crew.  

Nineteen fishing smacks, with 165 men on board, were out in the track of the storm, and old salts shake their heads when asked as to their chances for returning safely.  There were fewer out during each of the two big storms of August, and yet the death roll from these was not small."

Source:  DEATH AND DESTRUCTION -- Following in the Wake of the Devastating Storm of Last Week -- Reports Coming In -- Tell of Vessels Wrecked, Attended With Terrible Loss of Life -- The Storm Widespread -- It Raked the Coast, and Going Inland, Made Havoc on the Lakes, Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle [Poughkeepsie, NY], Oct. 16, 1893, Vol. 33, No. 10214, p. 1, col. 4.  


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I have written before about other devastating hurricanes and massive storms that have ravaged our little town.  See, e.g.:  

Wed., Sep. 14, 2016:  Northeast Gale with Hurricane Force Winds Hammered the Pelham Region on November 23, 1901.  

Tue., Apr. 22, 2014:  Another Story of the "Great White Hurricane" that Struck Pelham and Surrounding Regions in 1888.

Thu., Mar. 13, 2014:  The Great Blizzard of 1888 in Pelham:  126 Years Ago Yesterday and Today. 

Thu., Feb. 20, 2014:  Pelham Manor in 1883 and in its Early Years - Recollections of An Early Pelham Manor Resident. 

Tue., Feb. 14, 2006:  An Account of the Blizzard of 1888 by Pelham Manor Resident Henry W. Taft. 

Bell, Blake A., Pelham and The Great Hurricane of 1938, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XV, Issue 29, Jul. 28, 2006, p. 8, col. 1.

Bell, Blake A., The Blizzard of 1888: Pelham in the Midst Of the 'Great White Hurricane', The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 34, Aug. 27, 2004, p. 9, col. 1.

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Northeast Gale with Hurricane Force Winds Hammered the Pelham Region on November 23, 1901

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On the evening of Saturday, November 23, 1901, a northeast gale with brutal winds that reached category one hurricane strength of seventy-five miles an hour raged over Long Island Sound and smashed into the New York City region including Pelham and lower Westchester County.  This is the story of that savage storm.

Located on Long Island Sound, Pelham has been in the cross-hairs of many brutal nor'easters, hurricanes, and storms.  I have written before, for example, about the "Great Hurricane of 1938."  See Bell, Blake A., Pelham and The Great Hurricane of 1938, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XV, Issue 29, Jul. 28, 2006, p. 8, col. 1.  More recently, think of Super Storm Sandy that rolled over Pelham beginning October 28, 2012 causing extensive damage to homes, trees, the electrical grid, and more.  These are but a couple of the many, many brutal storms that have rolled over the New York City region in the last few hundred years.

Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog describes a the brutal gale that raged over the region in 1901 at a time before such storms were named.  The storm struck while New York City was in the midst of replacing the old wooden City Island bridge with a new steel bridge (which, in turn, is in the midst of being replaced today).  The storm was so severe that what was left of the old wooden bridge "was completely carried away."  

On Thursday, November 21, 1901, the northeast gale was blowing along the Atlantic Coast with winds up to fifty miles per hour.  After raging along the coast for forty-eight hours, the storm went on the move on Saturday, November 23rd.  During much of the day on Saturday, Pelham and the surrounding region were peppered with a steady, drizzling rain that persisted until the evening.  Late in the afternoon and during the early evening, the wind "steadily freshened."  On the evening of Saturday, November 23rd, the storm gained strength and moved ashore in the New York City region.  According to one account, the storm "became a raging hurricane.  Rain fell in torrents, and the streets became rivers of black water."  The storm raged for twelve hours Saturday night, into Sunday morning and caused some of its heaviest damage in the Pelham region along the shores from City Island and Pelham Bay Park to about Larchmont.  

Some tales of survival and stories of the power of the storm were quite compelling.  On City Island, a woman named "Mrs. Klause" lived in a home with her three sons.  As the gale reached its height, the family heard beams in the house beginning to crack.  The family "took warning" from the cracking and scrambled out of the home into the raging storm just as the house "was torn from its foundation and carried away."

Raging waters and high tide rolled over portions of the region.  At the Macedonian Hotel, again on City Island, waves were so high that they swept glasses and decanters from the bar on the first floor inside the building.  In New York City, the winds raged so severely that a woman walking on a sidewalk at 59th Street "was blown off the sidewalk and carried under the wheels of a passing wagon."  

By late Sunday, November 24th, the storm began to blow itself out.  Winds fell to about thirty-six miles an hour.  By noon that day, more than two inches of rain had fallen.  As the storm slowly departed, Pelham, City Island, and many along the Westchester shores were left to clean up the aftermath of yet another difficult storm.

"THE PIONEER, Owned by Inspector Byrnes, of

the City Sewer Department.  The boat was swept

from the ways in Robertson's yard, City Island, and

carried fully three hundred feet along the shore, and

is badly broken up."  Source:  THE PIONEER, New-

York Tribune, Nov. 26, 1901, Vol. LXI, No. 20099,

p. 1, cols. 3-4.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

"VIEW OF THE BEACH AT CITY ISLAND.  Between

Byles's and Hanson's yards.  The steam launches, the

1492 (in foreground) and the Olga, were taken from

their ways by the storm of yesterday in Hanson's yard,

fully 500 feet away.  The line of wreckage is 150 feet from

the water."  Source:  VIEW OF THE BEACH AT CITY

ISLAND, New-York Tribune, Nov. 26, 1901, Vol. LXI, No.

20099, p. 1, cols. 3-4.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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Though there are countless news articles about the impact of the storm on the region, below is the text of a handful of such articles.  Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.

"STORM HAVOC ON SEA AND LAND
-----
LONG ISLAND SHORE AND JERSEY COAST STREWN WITH WRECKAGE.
-----
WESTCHESTER HARD HIT -- SUBWAY WORK SUFFERS.
-----

A hurricane swept over Westchester, the Long Island shore and the Jersey coast on Saturday night, doing great damage on sea and land.  Vessels were torn from their moorings, landed high and dry in streets or on the shore, cast on rocks or blown out to sea, after running down other craft.

The country estates of wealthy New-Yorkers along the shore in Westchester suffered severely, and clubhouses and hotels in the same section were torn from their foundations, unroofed or damaged in other ways.

Similar conditions prevailed in New-Jersey, where, in some instances, people were imprisoned in their houses by floods.

Railway trains and trolley cars in the sections covered by the hurricane were forced to cease running on account of washouts, undermined tracks and destroyed bridges.  

In the city the tide rose higher than has been known in many years.  Low lying streets along the river fronts were submerged for blocks and many cellars were flooded.  Passengers had to be landed by rafts from some steamers.  The rapid transit tunnel was considerably damaged, and the work will be somewhat impeded.

Source:  STORM HAVOC ON SEA AND LAND -- LONG ISLAND SHORE AND JERSEY COAST STREWN WITH WRECKAGE -- WESTCHESTER HARD HIT -- SUBWAY WORK SUFFERS, New-York Tribune, Nov. 25, 1901, Vol. LXI, No. 20098, p. 1, cols 5-6.  

"WRECK AND RUIN ON SOUND
-----
BUILDINGS TORN FROM FOUNDATIONS -- PAVILIONS AND YACHTS BLOWN TO SEA -- COLUMBIA INJURED.

A northeast gale, blowing at the rate of seventy-five miles an hour, raged over Long Island Sound on Saturday and yesterday morning, and did damage to the extent of $350,000 along the northern shore.  At City Island, New-Rochelle, Larchmont, Orienta Point, Davenport's Neck and Premium Point the shore was strewn with wreckage, and old residents say it was the worst storm seen in forty years.  It is feared, when all reports are in, that they will show that a number of lives have been lost, as several yachts have not been accounted for.  The big country estates of wealthy men on Davenport's Neck, Premium Point and Orienta Point were badly damaged by the great combers, which ruined high retaining walls and flooded Italian gardens, while the cellars of many houses near the Sound were flooded.  At City Island the storm was so severe that yawls and catboats were torn from their moorings and dashed on the City Island and Westchester meadows far inland.  The damage to yachts and hotels at City Island alone is estimated at $100,000.

WATER FLOODS CLUBHOUSES.

The New-Rochelle Rowing Club was damaged to the extent of $1,500 by the wind, which tore off a new addition and tossed it in pieces fifty feet away.  The tide was so high that the floor of the clubhouse was flooded to the depth of three feet, while great rollers knocked out all the windows on the lower floor and greatly damaged a number of sculls which were stored on the floor.

The New-Rochelle Yacht Club house, on Harrison Island, was also affected by the wind, which moved the eastern side of the building half a foot out of place, while the floors were heaved up in the centre.

The Peggy, a 40-foot yawl, which cost more than $5,000, owned by F. S. Hastings, a son-in-law of E. C. Benedict, the banker, at Greenwich, lies a wreck on the rocks of Hudson Park, at New-Rochelle.  She had been brought from Greenwich to Echo Bay last week, where she had been anchored preparatory to being placed on the ways in 'Larry' Huntington's shipyard.  The Peggy had never been beaten in the 4--foot class, and was considered the fastest yacht of her class on the Sound.  Her hollow boom was snapped in two as though it was a clay pipestem, while her cabin and hull were crushed in and damaged almost beyond repair.  The cabin catboat Tom Cod, owned by T. H. Davis, of New-Rochelle, was carried half a mile down the Sound and then blown on Potter's Hill, thirty feet above the Sound level.

The retaining wall surrounding the estate of Howard N. Potter, on Davenport's Neck, was damaged to the extent of $2,000, while the cellar of M. Turner's house, on the Neck, was filled with water.

C. OLIVER ISELIN CUT OFF.

The hennery and duck house owned by C. Oliver Iselin, on Echo Island, opposite the Premium Point house, was washed into the Sound ,and all of Mr. Iselin's Italian gardens were badly damaged, while the bridge connecting the island on which his house is, was flooded, and for hours he was cut off from reaching the mainland.  His private dock and float were carried out to sea.

The Potter house, occupied by H. P. Wickes facing Keho Bay, was caught in the thick of the storm, and the water washed into the house, flooding the dining room and filling the cellar.

CITY ISLAND A MASS OF WRECKAGE.

The storm centre seems to have been at City Island, the shore front of which is a mass of wreckage.  The wind blew there eighty miles an hour.  Yesterday morning, when the residents awoke, they found the highways leading to the place covered with from two to four feet of water.  What was left of the old City Island bridge, which was being removed owing to the construction of a new steel structure, was completely carried away.  The water also filled the horsecar stables and washed away the tracks, so that the novel scene was witnessed of people going to church in rowboats.  In some places the water on the highways was so deep that the mounted police from the West Chester station found it up to the bodies of their horses.  The heaviest damage was done to the shipyards and hotels.  At the Jacobs, Hawkins, Woods and Robinson shipyards boats and pleasure craft were blown from their ways and moorings and stranded on the beach.

COLUMBIA BLOWN FROM HER WAYS.

The cup winner Columbia, it is reported, was blown from her ways at the Hawkins yard [on City Island] and had a hole stove in her.  At Robinson's yard, a steamboat owned by Thomas Burns, of the Department of Highways, was torn from the ways and left on the beach, where she was hopelessly wrecked.  A large bark, the name of which cannot be learned, is reported to have been blown ashore at Hart's Island.  Communication with the island has been cut off, and it cannot be learned whether or not any lives were lost.  Other smaller boats are strewn along the beach and on the salt meadows all the way from Larchmont to City Island.

HOTELS AND HOMES WRECKED.

While the gale was at its height at City Island the home of Mrs. Klause, on the point, was torn from its foundation and carried away.  Mrs. Klause and her three sons were in the building, and when they heard the beams cracking they took warning, and got out just in time to save themselves.  Woolley's Hotel, near by, was also washed from its foundations, and the pavilions around it were wrecked.  Other hotels that suffered damage at City Island were the Mace-

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donian, the Angus Inn and Jordan's.  In the Macedonian Hotel the waves were so high that they swept glasses and decanters from the bar.  The water was nearly a foot deep in the other hotels, and the guests got out, fearing that they would be carried away.  Nearly all of the hotels lost their pavilions and bathing houses, and sustained other damages.

Henry Lohbar, of the Fort Schuyler Road, in Westchester, is mourning the loss of a hotel.  The police at West Chester report that the hotel which has for years been the resort of artillery-men garrisoned at the fort, was swept from its foundations and wrecked.  All of the pavilions, bathing houses and outbuildings were also blown into the Sound.

PAVILIONS CARRIED TO SEA.

Private bathing houses owned by wealthy people on Premium Point and at Larchmont were washed out to sea and pounded to pieces.  The dock at Fort Slocum, on David's Island, was so badly damaged that the yachts were unable to land, and no one was able to leave the garrison.  At Larchmont the large spindle at the breakwater at the entrance to the Larchmont Yacht Club harbor, was missing yesterday morning.  An empty three thousand gallon naphtha tank is also floating somewhere in the Sound.  The wind wrested it from a small island near the yacht club, and took it seaward.  At Beck's Rye Beach the waves demolished a part of the long pier running into the Sound, and carried away bathing houses and pavilions.  The lower floor of the Rye Beach Hotel was flooded with water two feet deep.  The high tide extinguished the fires in the power house of the Union Electric Railway system at West Farms, and for seven hours traffic on the road from West Farms to Mount Vernon was at a standstill.  Thousands of passengers were forced to leave the cars and walk miles through the rain to their homes."

Source:  WRECK AND RUIN ON SOUND -- BUILDINGS TORN FROM FOUNDATIONS -- PAVILIONS AND YACHTS BLOWN TO SEA -- COLUMBIA INJURED, New-York Tribune, Nov. 25, 1901, Vol. LXI, No. 20098, p. 1, col. 6 & p. 2, col. 1.  

"CITY SUFFERS HEAVILY.
-----
MIGHTY RUSH OF WATER DAMAGES THE SUBWAY, AND WORK WILL BE IMPEDED.

With a wild rush of devastation the northeast gale, which for forty-eight hours had been bowling along the Atlantic Coast at the rate of fifty miles an hour, settled on Manhattan, and for twelve hours Saturday night and Sunday morning held undisputed sway over the waters of New-York Bay.  Ferryboats were unable to reach their piers, barges were wrenched from their moorings and set adrift and the low lying shore was covered by the highest tide known in this city in many years. 

On shore the storm king was equally supreme.  Early on Saturday night the drizzling rain which had persisted throughout the day suddenly took on a new and violent character.  The wind, which had steadily freshened in the afternoon, became a raging hurricane.  Rain fell in torrents, and the streets became rivers of black water, which swirled angrily against the curbs.  Late wayfarers were almost lifted from their feet by the violence of the storm, hats were whirled into the streets, umbrellas were suddenly wrenched out of people's hands by the wind, and at Fifty-ninth-st. a woman was blown off the sidewalk and carried under the wheels of a passing wagon.

During the early morning hours great trouble was caused the ferryboats, the tide flooding the pier slips and preventing the boats from landing.  Passengers from the Fall River steamer Priscilla were obliged to land in hacks, so high was the tide, and even these vehicles proved unsatisfactory, as the water rose above the seats and threatened to swamp them.  Rafts made of barrel staves were also used to land the passengers.  

About 8:45 yesterday morning a barge was noticed in a dangerous position off Sixty-eighth st.  Three men could be plainly seen huddled in the stern and constantly being drenched by the waves that broke over the boat.  The fireboat Zephar Mills was called to her assistance, and after several hours of work succeeded in rescuing her from her dangerous position.

In the East River also the tide reached a record breaking height.  The Boys' Farm on Randall's Island was submerged to a depth of over two feet.  On Ward's Island six bathing pavilions were wrenched from their moorings and converted into kindling wood by the mighty current which passed through Hell Gate.  At its highest point the tide washed the flooring of the lighthouse on the northern end of Blackwell's Island, which usually towers far above the waters.

For hours the Sixth and Eighth ave. cars were unable to run below Canal-st., as the water backed up in the sewers and flooded the power house at No. 13 Front-st. by the blocking up of a sewer.  In Varick-st. the pavings had been taken up and the horses on the crosstown line floundered up to their knees in the muddy water.

The most serious damage done by the storm was along the line of the new rapid transit tunnel.  All along the line work will be considerably impeded by the tons of dirt and rock washed into the excavation.  Near the Harlem River, where the tunnel is to go under the river, the water flowed into the trench and completely filled it.  The contractors yesterday estimated that $10,000 was the extent of the damage there.

Along West-st. many cellars were flooded, and considerable loss was suffered by the saloon-keepers, grocers and marketmen of that neighborhood.  A restaurant at No. 165 West-st. was so completely surrounded by the high tide that its owner could not get out to it during the morning.  

A number of minor accidents occurred.  Along Broadway several windows were blown in.  At One-hundred-and-thirty-fifth-st. and Lenox-ave. a billboard fifteen feet high and over two hundred feet long was blown over into the street.

Late in the afternoon the storm rested on its laurels, and the velocity of the wind dropped from fifty-two to thirty-six miles an hour.  The total rainfall at noon yesterday was over two inches."

Source:  CITY SUFFERS HEAVILY -- MIGHTY RUSH OF WATER DAMAGES THE SUBWAY, AND WORK WILL BE IMPEDED, New-York Tribune, Nov. 25, 1901, Vol. LXI, No. 20098, p. 1, col. 5.  

"SHIPS BLOWN INLAND.
-----
WRECKAGE PILED HIGH AND DRY ON SOUND SHORE -- THE COLUMBIA'S NARROW ESCAPE.

The gale which began on Saturday night and did thousands of dollars' worth of damage along the northern shore of Long Island Sound continued to blow over the Sound yesterday, and considerable wreckage was washed ashore at City Island, Hart's Island and New-Rochelle.  A big oyster sloop was blown on the Westchester sand bar, opposite City Island, late on Sunday night.  A crew of five men had a narrow escape from death, and only saved themselves from being drowned by seeking refuge in the rigging, where they were lashed for several hours.  The sloop was the Natalie, and was bound from Great South Bay to New-Haven.  Early this morning the Boat, which was partly filled with water, was pumped out and a tug pulled her off the bar.

A brig bound for New-London, which grounded on Hart's Island, was saved by the quick action of a tug's crew her dragged her into deep water just as she was heading for the rocky coast.  The Olga, a 40-foot steam yacht owned by a Boston man, and another steam yacht, the 1492, were both found wrecked in a salt meadow by the City Island Road.  They had been blown 150 feet out of the water.

It developed yesterday that the Cup defender Columbia had a narrow escape from injury.  Although wreckage was piled all about her at Hawkins's Pier, and the water rose to a depth of eight feet around her underbody, her immense keel proved sufficient to keep her down on the ways.  At one time the storm was so fierce that it threatened to carry away a long pier on her starboard side.  Had this pier given away both the Columbia and the Mineola, which were cradled near by, would have been doomed.  Captain Hawkins and his crew realized the danger, and at the risk of their lives set out to save the two vessels.  By wading through water waist deep they dragged heavy iron chains and anchors on the quaking pier, and prevented it from collapsing and being swept against yachts.  Not fifty feet away the steamboat Pioneer was driven ashore and pounded to pieces.

Driftwood, the country place of Henry Siegel, at Orienta Point, Mamaroneck, was badly damaged.  Mr. and Mrs. Siegel recently built an old Roman bridge to Crab Island, where they laid out Italian gardens and constructed pagodas and a bathing house.  The island was swept clean by the huge breakers that plunged over it on Saturday night and Sunday, and the loss will aggregate  several thousands of dollars.  Peter F. Meyer, the auctioneer, and partner of Richard Croker, who also lives at Orienta Point, lost several hundred tons of bluestone which he was about to have distributed on his property.  The bluestone was piled on Mr. Meyer's private pier, and was washed into the Sound."

Source:  SHIPS BLOWN INLAND -- WRECKAGE PILED HIGH AND DRY ON SOUND SHORE -- THE COLUMBIA'S NARROW ESCAPE, New-York Tribune, Nov. 26, 1901, Vol. LXI, No. 20099, p. 2, col. 4.  


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