Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1888 — A DELUGE OF RAIN. [ARTICLE]

A DELUGE OF RAIN.

One of . the Severest Klectric Storms i Known in Years. [Chicago special.] Chicago was visited last week by a slightly modified edition of the flood which drowned the world in Noah’s time. The storm seemed to have been quite general throughout the Northwest, extending over large portions of Minnesota, lowa, and Illinois. Luckily for this nineteenthcentury world, it did not last long. In the words of the word-juggler, however, Jupiter Pluvius meant business while he was at it. It is no exaggeration to say that for some ten minutes during the storm the water came down in such dense masses that the individual drops could be no longer noticed. The downpour, too, came with such suddenness that people out of doors were completely taken by surprise, and were wet through to the skin before they had time to run twenty feet for shelter. Those in cities who made a rush for the street cars, instead of finding a harbor of shelter, found themselves badly left; for the strong wind blowing during the thickest of the down-pour swept the falling sheets of water through the cars, and in a few minutes completely soaked the unhappy fugitives from the outer flood. Many streets in the larger cities were flooded from curb to curb, as were tunnels. Large trees were blown down, crops and fruit ruined, and many dwellings demolished. The lightning also caused much damage and some few fatalities at various points. At times the blinding electric flashes and the grand bursts of sound were almost instantaneous, and thus awe was added on awe, and fear followed fear. The world of business iu cities and towns for the moment was stilled. All listened and wondered and feared, and only thought of what would come next. People imagined themselves standing on the verge of a possible eternity as they watched the sinuous lightning rushing like mimic comets along telephone and telegraph wires—they felt death already creeping around their hearts, as it crept *o the hearts of a few, luckily only a few. It was ode of the most severe storms known for years. Dnring the heaviest downpour the wind blew forty miles an hour.