$15,000,000 Storm

Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean east of the West Indies fortnight ago a mass of hot air began to rise to cooler levels, made heavy rain clouds. Strong Southwest winds hit them, piled them up into a storm, drove them forward, spun them round & round. Out of this counterclockwise rotation with a deep low pressure area at its core was gradually born a tropical hurricane which with a yell of fury headed northwest toward the U. S. coast line 1,000 miles away. As it skirted south of Bermuda it kicked up enormous seas, sent Bermudians scurrying to cover, kept three large liners from putting in at Hamilton. As it thundered along under a black sky, it built up fresh strength from its own incessant whirling.

Meanwhile the weather was playing a different set of tricks over Labrador. There a high pressure area created an atmospheric trough down which whistled a dry northeast storm right across the path of the oncoming hurricane. The northeaster smote hardest along the New Jersey shore on a Sunday. Holiday fishermen had their craft capsized by the onslaught of wind and wave, were dragged to safety by alert, courageous Coast Guardsmen. Eight lives were lost, among them some of the oldest and ablest fishing skippers along the coast. Week-end trippers at Atlantic City were banged and buffeted. At Lewes, Del. Stanley H. Johnson, Denver juvenile court judge, with his wife, daughter and two seamen, was rescued from his sinking yacht Dolphin.

But in force and fury the northeaster was only a mild prelude to last week's hurricane by the time it crashed headlong upon storm-racked Cape Hatteras and started up the coast. Before it left North Carolina it had dragged the Diamond Shoals lightship six miles out of position, piled the four-masted schooner Kohler up on Gull Shoals. With a breeches buoy across a quarter-mile of snowy surf Coast Guardsmen took off nine men, a woman, a dog, two cats.

The Virginia Capes were the hurricane's next objective. Twenty-five miles off shore it swooped down upon the Old Dominion liner Madison, Norfolk-bound out of New York. A 70-ft. wave carried away the Madison's forward deck house, snapped her booms, stove in her ventilators, snatched off three lifeboats and flooded the cabins. The second mate and quartermaster were washed overside, two of the crew badly injured. Captain William Heath hove to, sent out an SOS. The 37 passengers were corralled in the main saloon at 5 a. m. To the wallowing Madison went the Coast Guard destroyer Upshur which oiled the tossing water, convoyed the steamer at 1 1/2knots into Norfolk 24 hours late. Debarking passengers sent up a great cheer for Captain Heath's steady seamanship.

Virginia Beach was ripped and torn apart by the surf. With its power turbines under water Norfolk was left in darkness, with a third of its streets flooded. The staff of the Ledger Dispatch worked in hip boots to get out their paper. In Portsmouth a child was swept to death down a sewer, three wading Negroes were electrocuted by a live wire. The hamlet of Oyster, famed duck-shooting depot, was wiped out with three dead. At Richmond the annex of the Virginia Capitol was partly unroofed. The City of Norfolk, with 40 passengers, turned out of raging Chesapeake Bay, grounded in Pocomoke Sound, was "lost" for 24 hours.

Wheeling north, the hurricane struck Washington the worst blow the capital has experienced in a generation. The barometer dropped to 28.94 in. as the storm centre passed nearby. Federal employes were let out early to scamper home to safety ahead of the storm. Six inches of rain fell in 24 hours. All street lights were out of commission. Venerable trees were blasted down around the Capitol and the White House. The Potomac River climbed over the Speedway.

Heavy rains undermined the Pennsylvania Railroad's bridge across the Anacostia River into Washington. Before dawn along came the Crescent Limited, crack Southern Railway train from New York to New Orleans. Under its weight the bridge went slithering, the locomotive sank in muddy ooze, its crew killed. Thirteen travelers were injured. Later in the week, rains washed out a switch near Tucumcari, New Mex., plunging seven cars of Rock Island's Golden State Limited into a swollen stream, killing six passengers, injuring some 25.

In Baltimore several cans of hydrocyanic gas, used by the quarantine station to fumigate ships, were washed adrift from a storehouse. Officials warned that instant death awaited any salvager who opened them.

On the 40-ft. highway between Washington and Baltimore the Patapsco River, raging out of bounds, swallowed up two Army sergeants, a truck driver and a motorist who had tried to navigate the flooded road.

The Eastern Shore of Maryland bore the full brunt of the storm. The waves washed clean through Ocean City to the inner bay. Cars were buried in sand. At Salisbury all able-bodied men were drafted to dig a ditch to divert the Wicomico River and save the town. At Scotland Beach where his cottage was washed away Missouri's onetime (1915-33) Representative Leonidas Carstarphen Dyer had to swim 200 yards for his life before he was hauled into a rowboat. At Dover the Delaware State Capitol was badly soaked. The famed du Pont Highway was closed to traffic from Dover to Salisbury when three bridges were swept away.

For the second time in three days the New Jersey coast took a terrific beating. The hurricane swept away the 300-ft. pier at Cape May where U.S. Marines patrolled the streets to guard citizens against fallen wires. The high combers devoured two sections of Atlantic City's famed boardwalk. Barnegat Light, 75 years old, was imperilled when the sea munched away the land to within 15 ft. of its foundations.

New York City was only sideswiped by the storm as it pounded northwest across the State. The Sandy Hook light was blown out and the Statue of Liberty went dark when lightning struck its power plant. So rough was the sea of Ambrose Channel that harbor pilots were unable to board incoming liners. Into Brooklyn was blown a baby Louisiana heron, with one wing broken. The storm gave the city a six-month supply of water in its mammoth reservoirs.

Its force spent by its wild overland journey, the hurricane went whining away across Lake Champlain to disappear harmlessly in Canada. In its wake it left 52 dead, $15,000.000 damages.

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