STORM IN SYDNEY.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 246, 28 February 1860, Page 3

STORM IN SYDNEY.

Accidents by Lightning and Rain. (Sydney Herald, YBeb. \\.)

For the past three days, the atmosphere has been very oppressive in and around Sydney. On Wednesday last, it commenced raining bard and continued throughout the night, accompanied with heavy gusts' of wind; and Thursday morning was generally remarked as most humid and enervating; during the whole of that d:iy the rain fell in torrents, with occasional vivid flashes of lightning and heavy thunder from the surcharged clouds. Yesterday morning these culminated in one of the most terrific thunderstorms that we remember for some time past, ushered in by a violent gale of wind. It commenced about halfpast ten o'clock, and lasted fully an hour; for some twenty minutes of that time, the flashes of lightning followed each other with such rapidity that the sound of one thunder-clap mingled with the other so as to create a noise like that of the continuous discharge of batteries of artillery, while the water poured from the clouds in sheets, and rushing from the high parts ofthe city lodged.banks of sand, stones, and. wood at the bottom of the decilivites. The • damage to property is considerable, but, so far as we have been able to ascertain, no serious personal injury has been sustained by any one.

Of the numerous accidents caused by the storm that to the furniture warerooms of Mr. Andrew Lenehan, of Castlereagh-street, was the most severe °and remarkable. The electric fluid struck the northern chimney of the show-room, which runs parallel with Castlereagh-street: over this is a workshop, in which a number of men are employed, and at the time one was engaged at the fireplace, down the chimney of which the electric fluid descended; he was knocked some three or four yards from where he was engaged, his arms and eyebrows being singed. The fluid seemed to burst, and went off, we are informed like a bomb-shell, and then divided into three streams, one passing under the shoe of another workman, burning off a portion of the sole, and slightly injuring his foot and darting into a corner where it ignited some pieces of cedar, burnt a portion of the lid of a tool-box, and forced its way out through one of the windows on the west-side, smashing three of the panes, a second stream passed from one end of the workshop to the other, in its course knocking some of those engaged at the benches violently against them, and is supposed to have escaped up the opposite chimney; the third stream perforated the floor at the north end and passed into the show-room belov, destroying the framework of a large mirror in its passage. It would seem the electric fluid then took a most eccentric course, burning the frames of three other mirrors, and fusing the quicksilver in patches on all of them. The pillar of a circular mirror with marble top was split from top to bottom. The marble top of a hall table was split in two and one portion lifted on one side; four vases standing on a hall table next to this were broken; two marble-top cheffoniers were also broken, and a whatnot on one of them apparently lifted off and placed carefully on the ground, being only slightly injured; the glass of a small clock was perforated as if by a bullet while the face and hands were untouched. The lightning then seems to have struck a large chimney glass, about five feet by four, cracking it in all directions and burst through another of similar dimensions literally smashing it to atoms, not a vestige of the glass or backwood remaining in the frame; and from there passed out into the yard through a window breaking . every pane. The number of articles destroyed and injured are five large mirrors—the two completely destroyed—being valued at twenty-five guineas ; one sideboard; two cheffoniers, one circular mirror, one marble top hall table, four vases, a handsome chimney ornament, and whatnot; the amount of the damage being estimated at over £100. All the persons employed in the workshop felt the shock, and described the smell of sulphur as suffocating. The news of the accident attracted a large number of persons during the day, and Mr. Lenehan permitted them to gratify their curiosity by seeing the destruction caused in a few moments by the freaks of electricity.

Another accident by lightning occurred at the house of Mr. M'Farlane, 219, Bourke-street South, at about aquarter to eleven.o'clock yesterday morning, during his absence from home at the Presbyterian

school in Palmer-street. We give the particulars of the occurrence as kindly communicated to us by Mr. M'F. The lightning passed down one of the chimneys, and entered the bedroom by the skirting board at the base-of the hall; probably attracted by the iron bedstead, it set fire to the bedclothes, destroying the bedding. The lightning then forced a passage through the floor into a room underneath (removing some heavy stones) where Mrs. M'Farlane, her infant, and son, with a servant, were seated. Mrs.. M'Farlane, who had been an invalid for some time, felt severe heat at the back part of her head, the infant became for the moment almost black, and the boy called out <* Oh, mother, my back's burnt;" the servant too was rendered senseless. The electric forced itself out through the wall. Among other things destroyed was a piece of needlework on which Mrs. M'Farlarte had been engaged for two years past. When Mr. M'Farlane returned home, srnd ioun,d the bedroqm on fire, he succeeded, in extinguishing the flames with the assistance of Mr. Stevenspn and .other neighbors. Although , his. family have sustained so severe,a shock, we believe they ar§ not seriously 'injured. Owing to the immense quantity of rain that fell yesterday morning owing the exitaqrdio^y feeayy $iwde^torift t^ai l^r&t.

over the city, all the, drains in the northern part of George-street, soon became choked with sand and debris washed down from the higher parts ofthe city lying to the westward of that part of the street, between Church-hill and Fort-street. The result was that the water, unable to find .an outlet by the drains, made a clean breach through many of the houses in low positions on the eastern side of the street, filling the cellars, and in many instances rising to some depth on the shop floors. Nor was this the worst part of the business, since some of the houses and stores in Pitt-street North were also in undated to a still greater extent. The range of houses belonging to Mr. Hunt, nearly opposite the Custom-house Hotel, were completely under water, the embankment which forms the covering of the sewer that passes along the west side of this part of the street, commonly known as the Tank Stream, prevented the escape of the water, which soon rose to such a height as to threaten with drowning such of the inhabitants—'principally women and children—as happened to be in the house. In a school at the end of this lane, there were some twenty scholars, the elder of whom made their escape by swimming. The little household goods of the unlucky inmates were of coursef considerably damaged, the water rising to the height of some feet in the lower houses. Those of the children who had no change of dry clothing were sent away to the Benevolent Asylum, in cabs, by the InspectorGeneral of Police. The lower part of the store of Messrs. Fairhurst and Co. was also filled with water, and much of the goods have sustained considerable damage. Es-sex-street, which is very precipitous, presented a striking picture of the strength of the flood. At its embouchure into Georgestreet, the whole width of the street was covered with large blocks of stone, almost preventing the passage of vehicles; kerbing, and gutterings, and pieces that had been used to fill up holes were thrown about and swept down by the stream, as if they had been mere pebbles. A few minutes served to choke the drains here, between two and three feet depth, of sand being over them, and then the stream made a clean breach through the premises of Mr. Nicolle, and the ironmonger's shop adjoining, and went to swell the water that •inundated Pitt-street North. The shop of Mr. Bode, outfitter, at the corner of George and Essex-streets, was flooded, the water rising nearly to the level of his counter, and damaging goods to the estimated extent of £200. Another outfitter, on the opposite side of George-street (facing Essexstreet), had about £20 worth of goods damaged. The Star Hotel was struck by the lightning, which knocked off a large patch of plaister and some portion of stone from the southern face of the building. The shock was felt throughout the house, and was so severe that several persons in the bar, and others in an upper room, were prostrated on the floor. A number of panes of glass in different windows were smashed by the concussion. Here a'so, as in all the low-lying houses, the under premises were two feet under water. Some houses at the corner of Gloucester and Es-sex-street, which lie considerably below the level of the street, were also considerably flooded.

The Elephant and Castle Tavern, at the corner of Pitt and King streets, suffered so severely by the storm that it had to be immediately closed. The water, it would seem, had undermined the foundation, and the house being very old, that very heavy clap of thunder breaking over it, shook it so much that the wall facing Pitt-street sunk several inches, leaving numerous large cracks running nearly the length of the wall. The police authorities ordered the house to be closed, and stationed two oonstables there to prevent people passing close to the house, fearing that it might fall on them. Subsequently posts and railings were erected outside the pavement to prevent a too near approach to the wall in case of its tumbling down. The eastern part of the house is apparently unshaken.

The house recently occupied hy Mr. Flood, in Botany-street, Surry Hills, was also struck by lightning, which did considerable damage, but the nature and extent of the damage we have not yet been able to ascertain.

During the heavy fall of rain yesterday afternoon a great quantity of water accumulated at the Haymarket from the surrounding hills, and at one time was about a foot deep on the crown of the street, which is here raised about two feet above the kerb stone at Mr. Douglas's shop and stores in George-street. The fresh rose level with the top step, and at one time threatened to flood the floors as well as the cellars, into which the water rushed through the foundation and gratings, damaging a large quantity of goods there as well as in the stores in the rear, where 'the water rose nearly three feet, rushing by in a- torrent carrying all before it. At one time it was feared that the foundation of the stores would be washed away, and that the building would fall, for it appeared like an island in the midst of a sea. The stores were built with timber, and consequently withstood the storm and saved the 15Q tons of goods therein. The above may be applied to Thursday's visitation, with the exception that the water rose two feet higher.

In addition to. the effects of the storm in Woolloomooloo related above, there were several others. One of the houses in Premier-terrace was considerably damaged, and the rooms flooded with water. The water that -rushed down from under the bridge in William-street, just to the west of .Riley-street, inundated a number^ of cottages in Anns-place (known at one\jnae under the very appropriate n'ain.e oi Stream Lane), between Riley-^.t^et and the paddock to the west,-and destroyed much property belonging to a class of persons to«?-<' li\.spih| of

the cottages the water rose to the height of five or six feet, and in one or two cases the lives ofthe inmates were seriously endangered before they were assisted out by some energetic neighbors. The rushing torrent swept away out-houses, barrels, cases, &c, damaged a large quantity of the poor people's furniture, destroyed all the vegetables in the gardens, and left a deposit of sand and mud in some places more than a foot in depth. As the water swept down Riley-street, it tore up the kerbing and guttering on the north side oi* the street, flooded the westernmost iron house, and washed from underneath it a large portion of its stone foundation. Further to the eastward, in the same street, other havoc left by the storm was observable. That portion of the wall and iron palisading in front of St. Kilda House, west of the front entrance gate to the corner of Palmer-street, was washed down on the footpath by the weight of water from the gardens behind the house. Large stones and debris were also scattered about in different directions in that, as well as in several other streets in the lower portion of Woolloomooloo. Much damage was also done in that locality on Thursday. A considerable portion of the wall at the the south-east corner of the gardens at the rear of St. Mary's Cathedral, fell down: and a large piece more will have to be pulled down, owing to an extensive fissure some distance from the fallen part. In Bay-street, Glebe, several poor families were washed out, and compelled to seek shelter from their neighbors, the water rising in their frail tenements to a height of three or four feet.

A portion of the old Distillery wall, Parramatta-street, was washed down, and part of the footway carried in by the rush of the waters.

Some of the people belonging to the Circus were struck, but not injured by the lightning. Several gardeners at Botany were flooded out, and their crops were also under water.

We have heard of several other cases of unimportant effects of the storm, but the above are the only ones come to our knowledge in which it proved destructive to property. Happily, the warring elements do not appear to have been fatal to life.

Great activity is now manifested under the superintendence of Mr. John Anderson, in the royal gun factories at Woolwich, with a view of completing the specified number of Armstrong guns by the end of the present year. A waggon load of manufacturing material, being the first portion of a batch of guns (12-pounders), has been transported from the establishment for conveyance to Elswick to be completed there, a regulation having been established to manufacture a portion only at each of the factories, in order to insure a greater degree of caution in guarding the secret of the principle from the public. The War Department have issued a most stringent order for the exclusion of every person, without exception, from visiting the factories. As a proof of the strictness with which the injunctions are observed, it may be stated that a few days ago the members of the Royal Defence Commission requested permission to visit the establishment. Their request was telegraphed to Pall-mall, and a reply was promptly received, to the effect " that Mr. Secretary Herbert regretted that the regulations could not be departed from, even in that peculiar instance." A similar denial was a few days ago received from the authorities of the rifle factories on the application for admission of General Dacres, commanding the garrison at Woolwich.

The Vulcan, screw troopship, commander E. Strode, at Portsmouth, is ordered for survey by the military and medical authorities at the port for service in China.

The royal carriage department of Woolwich Arsenal is in full employ, providing equipments for China. The wharfs are again covered with intrenching carts, artificers' waggons, hand carts, store waggons, covered hospital and tool waggons, the latter numbering 400 alone; the whole of which are marked " China." There are, likewise, several batteries of 6, 9, 12, and 24-pound brass howitzers and rockets ready for embarkation, also marked " China."