The Rhode Island Republican

[Mer. Adv.]

SUNBURY, Aug. 28.--During the easterly blow on Monday afternoon, Mr. Coston of our neighborhood witnessed one of the most awful and destructive whirlwinds ever experienced perhaps in this part of the world. When the blow came on he was standing under a shelter adjoining a house in which there were considerable quantity of cider, wines, &c. and was in the act of coopering a cask. Large trees were prostrated or twisted off at the roots in the twinkling of an eye, and fences swept from their places and whirled aloft through the air like chaff. Mr. Coston as his only hope of preservation threw himself prostrate on his face, until the tornado had passed, and thus escaped its fury without any serious injury, while every object around him was swept away before it. The shelter under which he lay, was gone! and the still-house, to which it was attached, though very strong built and thirty feet square, with its contents, was hurled from its foundation to a considerable distance. A barrel of wine which was under the shelter, was taken up, and borne along with the blast to a distant part of the field. The large cider trough, full of pomace and weighing about half a ton was blown to an incredible distance. After passing the distillery the whirlwind took a southerly direction and came in contact with 4 or 5 negro houses, and other buildings all of which were demolished and their fragments scattered afar--the roof of one of them has been found at something like a quarter of a mile from the spot where it was taken from. Not one was seriously injured. Providence in his unerring wisdom seems to have interposed for their preservation, for it would appear almost impossible that 2 or 3 persons could be taken up and thrown to a distance of 20 yards against a paling fence, as was actually the case, without being killed.