Saturday 20 February 1847 Issue: ENGLISH NEWS

THE FIRST FATAL HURRICANE IN NEWFOUNDLAND. - The same hurricane that perilled the Great Western has committed havoc in Newfoundland. Many vessels were wrecked or damaged, boats swamped, trees uprooted, and houses blown from their foundations. The rivers rose in places fully ten feet above their ordinary levels. An unfinished building, the Natives' Hall, which since the last fire had afforded shelter for several families, was blown down; two persons named Duggan were killed, and their mother and several others very dangerously injured. The new church of St. Thomas was lifted from its foundations, and moved several inches from its original position. Every bridge crossing the river, from Quidi Vivi (sic) to Long Pond, has been either swept away by the flood or much damaged. The arch of the King's Bridge is entirely gone. The River-head bridges have also suffered, although not to the same extent. The centre part of the long bridge leading to the south side was carried away; as were several smaller bridges in other directions.- Leeds Mercury, October 31.

Wednesday 25 August 1847 Issue: NEWFOUNDLAND

The latest dates from this colony give accounts of a very severe winter - the severest which has been remembered for years. The ill-housed inhabitants of St. John's (the capital of the island), who have barely recovered from the effects of the two disastrous fires, and of the severe hurricane with which they were visited in the course of last year, were, a little after midnight, on the 26th of January, alarmed by the heavy guns upon the battery giving warning of a fresh conflagration. The collector's house, adjoining the Collegiate Institution of Bishop Field, and in the neighbourhood of St. Thomas's Church, fell a prey to the devouring element, which would have made further ravages, had it not been for the extreme severity of the night, which occasioned the water which was thrown upon the burning houses to become ice upon their shingled roofs, and so prevented the current of air through their easily-ignited materials. The collector's lady and the other inmates made their escape in the dead of the night, when the thermometer was considerably below zero. His Lordship the Bishop of Newfoundland had only landed on the afternoon preceding the fire from the Sandwich packet, in which he had arrived alter a voyage to England, undertaken for the purpose of raising funds for the repair of St. John’s Church, which served as the cathedral, which had been burnt down in the former fire. – Bell’s Messenger.

Transcribed from the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program
http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp; © National Library of Australia