Storm Causes Slight Local Damage

Cambridge remained relatively intact through the storm that ravaged the New England coastline for 19 hours this weekend. Heavy rain and winds ranged in force from gale-to-hurricane.

University Department of Building and Grounds officials said last night that the worst damage came at 10 p.m. Saturday night when two brick chimneys in Grays Hall toppled through the roof, leaving holes that allowed rain to wash away the wall and ceiling plaster of four rooms. Three students living in the top floor suite will not be able to return for another two weeks, while the three students living on the floor below have been evicted by the workmen for about three days. No one was injured, though there was a sleeping Yale man in the top floor room at the time. Personal damage was estimated at $100.

Cambridge Public Works officials said that local damage was limited to 15 felled elm trees that blocked traffic in the outlying regions of the city for only a few hours. Plugged highway drains and flooded cellars were also reported.

The plugged drains on Shephard and Boylston Streets and Massachusetts Avenue created puddies from 12 to 18 inches deep in some places. One such puddle on Massachusetts Avenue forced water to flow down into the Harvard Square subway station.

Soldiers Field was in shambles yesterday, with the goalposts on the House football fields tottering, fences down, and much of the area under water gibing sea gulls opportunity to public contentedly.

Shortage of police officers gave six doubts an opportunity to direct traffic on Memorial Drive and on Boylston Street.