Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1889 — WILD GALE IN VIRGINIA [ARTICLE]

WILD GALE IN VIRGINIA

CROPS DEVASTATED BY SEVERE WIND AND HAIL. A Million DoUarg’ Damage Done to Farm and Other Property in That State—North Carolina Also Visited by the DestructiveHailstones. [Norfolk (Vo.) dispatch.] One of the most severe hailstorms that ever struck this section has just passed over Norfolk, Portsmouth, aud vicinity. Ice particles of extraordinary size came down with the hail, and several inches of hail lay in drifts before the deluge of rain that followed carried it away. The shade trees of the streets and the flower and vegetable gardens were badly wrecked. In the -country the truck farms were badly torn up, strawberries, peas, cabbage, and other crops being beaten to the ground. The vineyards and orchards suffered severely, vines and trees being cut terribly and the fruit destroyed. Many of the truckers express themselves as ruined for the season. A swath of five or six mileß broad was cut through Norfolk and Nansemond Counties by the storm. The truckers all around the Hodges Ferry section and between the Western Branch River and Poitsmouth lost everything. The loss will probably reach a million dollars, and it is too late now to attempt to recover. The hailstorm and rainfall swept over Southampton County in the vicinity of Newsom’s Depot, and the growing crops and orchards were badly damaged by large pieces of ice and the great quantity of it. The drifts of hail were twenty-four inches deep in some places, and twelve hours after the storm the drifts were over six inches in depth. The barn of W. S. Francis was blown down by the wind and demolished and three horses killed. Other farmers suffered in damage to their buildings. The storm struck the great bridge section of Norfolk County, the hailstones in some cases being as large as pnllet eggs. The potatoes and vegetable gardens were damaged. Three men at work in a field beyond Deep Creek during the same storm were* struck by lightning and badly injured. The severest cyclone ever known there passed over Danville, doing great damage to roofing, fences, shade, and fruit trees. Three tobacco factories were unroofed, the bridge over the Dan River damaged, a house in course of construction and the colored Baptist Church blown down, the roof of the storage warehouse partly blown off, and Lee’s tobacco warehouse damaged. The shed over the brick fnill was blown down and fell on N. A. Fitzgerald, the proprietor, seriously injuring him. The cyclone was accompanied by rain and slight hail, lasting fifteen minutes. A dispatch from Lumbertou, N. C., says six inches of hail fell there. A gale nreceded the storm, unroofing many small houses and utterly obliterating the crops.