The New Hampshire Gazette

Destructive Storm.—We were visited this morning by one of the most violent thunder storms ever witnessed in Philadelphia. It commenced about an hour after midnight, and continued until near three o'clock, during the whole of which time, except a short period, when there was a temporary suspension, it thundered and lightened almost without any intermission, with a degree of violence scarcely ever known in our latitude. The rain fell in torrents, and probably a greater body of water was never before seen in our streets. In a part of the city near which our office is located, extensive damage has been sustained, and the losses that have occurred to many worthy individuals and families of moderate means, have been very great—It seems that at the time of the storm, it was high tide, which prevented, as is supposed, the discharge of the water from the mouth of the common sewer at the foot of Dock-street.—The consequence was, that the sewer became filled, and the whole of Dock-street, which is more than a hundred feet wide, presented one sheet of water from house to house, extending all the way from near Front-street, where the ground is elevated, up to the Exchange near to Third-street.—Scarcely a cellar escaped inundation. The street called little Dock-street, as far as its junction with Second-street, suffered in the same manner. The scene exhibited this morning in the designated neighborhood, was truly distressing. Sugars and other groceries, hard ware, casks of liquors with their bungs out, cotton yarns, and a variety of other articles were totally destroyed or greatly injured. A baker, whose oven was in the cellar, has had it entirely destroyed, and several persons have lost from a hundred to a thousand dollars. We have not heard how far the storm extended into the country, but we fear that injury must have been sustained by the wheat crop, and by Mill dams.—Philadelphia Gazette of Friday.