Storm-Torn Gates Open to 303rd Harvard Class; Many New Freshmen Will Be Delayed by Flood

Few, if any, of those ariving in Cambridge today, will be untouched by the greatest hurricane which has ever struck Boston.

After over a week of muggy weather when the humidity stood steadily at 92 percent, the storm broke furiously at about 6 o'clock Wednesday evening, and lasted until 10 o'clock. During that time nothing was spared. Blasts of wind carried branches through the air. Football practice was abandoned when a ten foot strip of board fence came hurtling through the air toward C and D teams and the wooden grandstands retreated nine feet. A chimney fell off Harvard Hall and started the automatic sprinkler which in turn set off the fire alarm and drew three fire engines. Another chimney plunged through the roof of the School of Education. Slate from Wigglesworth Hall's roof whirled across the street, and is blamed for the breaking of the Cambridge Trust Company's large plate glass window.

Eliot House, Winthrop House, and the Yard were the worst hit as far as loss of trees goes. Nine of the stately elms outside of Eliot House along Memorial Drive were prostrated, leaving a comparatively bare building. Over half of the poplars in the front circle were blown done. A scene of wreckage was the court between Gore and Standish Halls of Winthrop House, where all but three of the old willows went down. Fifteen trees in the Yard were uprooted or snapped off near the roots.

Damage to this part of the University is estimated at over $100,000.