TERRIFIC STORMS.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 353, 1 March 1902, Page 2

TERRIFIC STORMS.

GREAT DAMAGE AT SEA AND ON LAND.

(Per R.M.S. Sierra, at Auckland.) San Francisco, Feb. 9,

Terrific storms havo been raging on both sides of the Atlantic. Gules swept tho coasts of Long Islaud aud New Jersey for more than twenty-four hours ending February 3, bringing death and disaster to sailors and their craft. Wreckage strewed the shores, and a westerly galo blew at the rate of seventy miles an hour.

Among the vessels which suffered was the British ship Claverdalc, bound from China and Japan for New York. The vessel rounded on the Bringantine shoal, and wind and sea being unfavorable she was still fast at last accounts, broad side on, deep in the sand, with wrecking tugs around her. The vessel has a cargo valued at two and a-half million dollars, consisting of tea and other merchandise. She is almost new, a steel ship of modern build, and 3300 tons register. On the mainland trains were everywhere delayed, and wires were down in many towns. New York and Pennsylvania were cut off and traffic entirely suspended owing to a blizzard and heavy snow storms.

Telegrams from London, also dated February 3, say ; Reports of damage from wind and snowstorms on the Continent and in Great Britain continue to arrive. Carriage and street car traffic in Madrid had been suspended, and trains are delayed. Some towns in Northern Spain are isolated, and fruit trees have been destroyed. In Switzerland many villages are cut off from communication.

Telegraph communication with Italy is interrupted. There is more snow in Venice than at any time during the past twenty-five years.

The river Tiber rose thirty-five feet. The lower portion of Rome is flooded, as well as the Forum of tho Pantheon and Temple of Vesta. The water of the Tiber is receding.