Terrible Gale at Madrid. GREAT LOSS OF LIFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2180, 29 June 1886, Page 2

Terrible Gale at Madrid. GREAT LOSS OF LIFE.

Tlip capital of Spain was on tho I2th May visited by a cyclone almost tropical in its fury, which caused in one abort hour such loss of life and destruction of property and trees as within human memory never before occurred in Madrid. The weather during the day had been close, the thermometer registering 28 centigrade (82 4 Fahrenheit) in the shade, and the wind frequently shifting from ton til to north-west. The barometer fell rapidly, from five in the afternoon to btorni point, when raiu began to fall so violently as to cause a panic iv the streets. Within 70 minutes the hurricane had swept over the Manzanares Valley, uprooting hundreds of trees, smashing the palisades, carrying away roofs, destroying large laundry sheds, burying under them many persons, 13 cf whom were killrd and 40 injured, mostly women, who have left many orphans. The wind was so terrible that it knocked down persons in the strpeta, and upset tramcars and large mule carts. Falling tdes and fragments of roofs and trees killed or injured many persons. Tall factory chimneys were razed to the ground. The greatest confusion reigned all nL'ht, because the telephone and telegraphic wires were btoken, thus preventing the rendering of prompt assistance. The railway* around the capital are also much damaged. On Thursday morning the Home Office authorities estimated the number of deaths at nearly 100, and of wounded at 2.30, but the number injured id believed to be greater.