bannwart: the storm in Newark 
5 
was lifted eight (8) feet into the air by the roots of a falling hickory tree. 
No windows were broken. 
This is perhaps the best place to give the figures of some of the con¬ 
tiguous towns. The County Parks suffered a total loss of 262 trees. 
Branch Brook Park—300 acres—Mr. Witte reports, was hit the hardest 
—180 trees. East Orange, according to Martin Herman, the Executive, 
lost 128 street trees. He does not venture to give an estimate of the 
loss in the private grounds. Maplewood, according to the reports of 
Richard Walter, the Forester, lost 110 street trees—ten to twenty inches 
in diameter. 
Mr. Clarence Biebel, the Forester of Irvington, gives the following 
summary: 560 street trees blown down, 182 did damage to porches or 
buildings; 121 were demolished in the backyards, with 35 casualties to 
buildings; 178 trees were straightened and several hundred other trees 
were damaged by the storm, necessitating pruning; 52 trees were blown 
down in school yards, public and parochial, and 17 in the parks. 
The New Jersey Bell Telephone Company reported a total of 23,243 
telephone lines affected; 321 cable failures. I quote, “Approximately 
900 large trees were blown across wires and cables—there were 4000 
other cases where telephone equipment was damaged by small trees and 
branches. Telephone traffic quadrupled, reaching record breaking 
proportions on the day of the hurricane. There were over 4,000,000 
originating calls. Over 500 temporary operators helped handle the 
trafiic. ,, 
In addition to this direct loss of trees uprooted, we have a problem of 
young trees that were pushed out of plumb. We estimate 5000 trees of 
our planting—planes, pin oaks, Norway maples from six to twelve 
inches in diameter will need severe trimming, straightening and staking 
until they have developed new roots. We have already straightened 
and severely cut back hundreds of these trees. In connection with this 
straightening of trees, we head them back severely and brace them 
with extra sized stakes, etc. 
In the budget for 1939 provision is made for an extra Spring planting 
program. Many of the gaps made by the destruction of the poplars 
will be filled with a hardier breed, such as oaks, maples and planes. 
Many citizens in the same breath with which they reported the loss of 
their trees said: “Please list our frontage for planting in the Spring.’’ 
“Hope springs forever in the human breast.” 
