The Massachusetts Spy, And Worcester County Advertiser

SUNBURY, (N. C.) Aug. 28.

TREMENDOUS HURRICANE. During the easterly blow on Monday afternoon, Mr. Costen 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 on which there was a considerable quantity of cider, low-wines, &c., and was in the act of coopering a cask. He describes the sound of the rushing whirlwind as resembling the detonation of a vast number of cannon joined in one continued roar, in its approach to the spot where he was; and fully equal to the sound was the violence of its effect on every object with which it came in contact: 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. C., 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 foundations to a considerable distance. A barrel of low-wines 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 four or five 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. How far beyond Mr. C's. plantation the devastating effects of the storm had been traced, I have not yet learnt. Mr. C. estimates his loss at $800. What is perhaps as remarkable as any other fact in this case, though there were people in several of the houses demolished, not one was seriously injured. Providence in his unerring wisdom seems to have interposed for their preservation, for it would appear almost impossible that two or three persons could be taken up and thrown at a distance of 20 yards against a paling fence, as was actually the case, without being killed.

-Norfolk Herald.