STRUCK BY A CLOUD-BURST THOROLD HAS A VERY NARROW ESCAPE

The Welland and Niagara Central Railways Damaged-A Boy Hurt-

Gardens Destroyed and Cellars Flooded.

St. Catharines Standard, Wednesday

[Welland Telegraph, 19 June 1891]

Thorold yesterday was pretty nearly washed away, and the inhabitants of the Mountain Town state that never in the history of the place have they been visited with such a storm.

Shortly after noon black clouds made their appearance in the distance but weather prophets foretold that no rain would interfere with the races and in consequence quite a number attended. They were, however, doomed to be disappointed, for shortly before three o’clock the sky began to get dark with black clouds. One of these clouds was particularly prominent by the manner in with it twisted and twirled round and round. This continued until the heavy mass hung right over the town when suddenly a  brilliant flash of lightning followed by a terrific clap of thunder, startled the inhabitants, who began to make tracks for home. Before they had gone more than a few yards, however, the cloud seemed to expand and burst, and sheets of water descended drenching everybody and everything. The lightning flashed, the thunder roared, the rain came down, and the wind blew a regular hurricane. Hats and umbrellas were torn from the grasp of owners, window blinds were blown down, buggies were almost overturned, limbs of trees were torn off, and to make matters worse hail began to fall as large as hens’ eggs, barns, verandas, sheds, dwellings, in fact everything that afforded shelter was sought for eagerly by those who were caught in this the worst storm that ever struck Thorold. The storm lasted for two hours and during that time several accidents took place, the worst of which occurred to a boy of about 16 years of age, who was struck by a very heavy limb of a tree and severely injured but inquiries this morning as to his condition show that he is not hurt as badly as was at first thought. The lads name is Reuter. The telephone at the City Hotel was burned out by lightning.

The power house of the electric street railway was struck by lightning and the motor burned out, so that the car system was unable to work except horse power until after ten o’clock this morning.

The enormous amount of water that fell soon began to be noticeable, and in a short time the old canal began to rise, and by the time the storm was over the water had over flown the banks, but beyond flooding a few cellars no damage was done. On the railways, however, things were different. The water rushed into the gully at Lock 24 on the new canal, through which the G.T.R. Welland division trains run and washed the ties up and the road bed away. On the Niagara Central the road bed was badly washed up but is being repaired as quickly as possible.

The gravel and wrecking trains from Hamilton were sent for and after working all night the men have managed to put the G.T.R. line into shape again. Perhaps the heaviest private loss will fall on Mr. Jos. Hunt, whose gardens were flooded and damage to the amount of about $1,000 done. Telegraph wires fell but are being put up this morning. In Thorold almost every cellar was flooded. Some idea of the violence of the wind and rain may be gathered from the fact that they took every vestige of paint off a carriage in which were Ald. Frank Maguire and Mr. W.K. Pattison. Many other vehicles suffered in the same way. Umbrellas were useless in the blizzard and were destroyed by the score.