Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1891 — STORM ON THE WEST COAST. [ARTICLE]

STORM ON THE WEST COAST.

Widespread Damage to Orange Groves and Other Property in California. Southern California has been visited by the worst storm known in years, which caused the loss, of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the orange groves of Los Angeles and San Bernardino All telegraph wires were down and even yet all damage has not been reported. From what is known, however, one-lialf the orange crop of Pasadena and the San (laoriel Valley is destroyed. Riverside, which usual y suffers from heavy winds and which is thoiefore protect d by big hedges, did not feel the full force of the storm, but tho orange crop was badly damaged. The center of the storm was at I asadena. There the Congregational and German Churches were totally wrecked. Th*o tin roof on Williams’ Hall was lifted and deposited in front of the San Gabriel Valley Bank. The roof on the Arcade Building went up at the same time. The Raymond Hotel suffere 1 ser oils loss. The roof of the west gable was carried oil when the gale was highest. Fortunately no one was injur, d by the aecid nt The destruction to orange orchards Is reported as heavy in exposed places. It is said in some sections that two-thirds of the fruit is blown from tho trees.

In the Verdugo (anon and Glcndalo section the storm was tho wildest ever known. Mrs Brown, living in a small house on the Vcrdugo road, met with a horrible death. Her house was a small stiucturo set up high from the pround. A terrific gust wrenched it from the foundations and it collapsed. Mrs. Brown was caught in the timber. From that posit'on she could not e\t icato herself, and lire ensuing she was burned to death. Tho storm was terrifi ■ in the San Fernando A alley. The old mission at San Fernando was shaken upas it never was bef< ro. Great chunks of adobe wa is weighing a ton were lurried about. At Burbank the Presbyterian Church was wrecked. The Holiness Church at Monrovia was wrenched from its foundations and the steeple of the Baptist Church was badly wrecked. Some of it was carried away. The old mission church at San Gabriel was one of the strongest and l est pre served mission buildings in tlie Stato. The walls were badly damaged and the belfry was demolished.