The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1881-02-19
STORM NOTES.

Eastern dslics related to break ups, floods,
snow storms, billiards and ircezc.ups East,
! West and South, and VIC could fill several col.
umns by giving only the brieiest aynopsls of
them. But of course We shall make no such
attempt, but say, in general way, that from
Thursday evening of last week until Monday
OF the present, the storm king held high reyel
over about two.thirds Of the country, extend.
| ing from the Rocky Mountains on the west TO
the Atlantic on the east and from line cor.
responding with the south line of Lake Supe,
ror on the north to Tennessee on the south
| At the East the weather all last week and up
| to Monday was quite mild, resulting IN IA
| pid thaw, and to this was added on Friday a
heavy rain fall, which OF course set all the
| streams booming. At the West the weather
was alike mid up 10 Friday, but then the ram
here turned INTO slcct and snow, while al the
East il continued mild until the end of the
downfall on Monday. The effect on the streams
at the East, therefore, WAS that they had the
tull benefit of the flood which had only
fairly begun here and was arrested IN its midst
by the frecze-up OF Saturday and since then.
Thus while the Connecticut, Hudson, Susque.
hanna, Schuylkill Delaware, Ohio and other
rivers at the East are clear Of ice, the ice was
only here and there broken in the Illinois and
other western streams, and where on Friday it
had commenced flowing, The subsequent freeze
up arrested it and 1t is now thicker and more
solid than ever, while the suddenly swollen
streams are rapidly receding. The situation
however, is full of danger. The destructive
floods ut the East serve to show what we
should have had here had the tEaw continued;
but the arrest has gwen us IS 10 90 inches
more snow TO thaw out and SIX inches to foot
more ice 10 break up, and if our next thaw
comes with another warm rain, the scenes al
the East will I've doubly intensified, We fear, IN
many western localities.
As to how really sorIoEs the food was at the
Esat, it Is sufficient TO say, that for the first
time in fifty years the Potomac, by an Ice
gorge below Washington, rose SO high at that
city that considerable portion Of Pcnnsylva.
MA avenue was under water; Washing ton
monument stood on small island, and the
water came up to the stables attached to
Presidents house. Along the Delaware
Schuylkill and SusUuehanna dozens OF cities
for the first time in their history were flooded.
many bridges were carried away, and proper.
ty was destroyed running into many hundreds
OF thousands of dollars Below Harrisburg
part of the IA. railroad track was 3 feet un.
der water; at Manyunk houses and factories
were damaged 100000 by the overflow, &c.
No city, however, seems to have suffered more
seriously than Toledo, OHIO, where the Maui
NEE rose so rapidly and brought down such
masses Of ice as to carry everything before it,
The Pennsylvania railroad bridge and the
Cherry street foot bridge were swept away, "a
large portion Of the city was flooded, many
lumber yards were badly damaged halt q doz-
en- of vessels IN the harbor broken up or carried
out INTO the lake, and so on. The damage runs
INTO millions. On Monday the weather at the
East generally turned cold, and the streams be.
gan to fall; but they escaped our western
snow blizzard
AZ to that blizzard, il seems TO have .tartcd
in the Rocky mountains and struck the west
ern borders of Kansas and Nebraska on Thurs
day afternoon. IL ragged" south as far as Al.
buquerQue, 100 miles south of Santa Fe IN
New Mexico; north TO little beyond the
south line of Minnesota and east as TAR as In.
diana and Michigan with rain in the south.
The snow fsll ranged from 20 inches in Kan
sas, SC, to Is inches and down to ten IN Iii
nois, Michigan and Indiana. OF course. for q
day or two railroad travel in the West was gen.
orally blocked, ana here and there was suffer.
ing and loss Of life BY being caught in the
storm and showed in. In Illinois aud east of
ia, south of Wisconsin, however, the railroads
generally were able to work up to their time
tables
The flood in New Orleans reached its maxi.
mum on Saturday, when II square miles OF
the city were under water, embracing a popu-
lation of 10000. The occasion of the food
was heavy local rains, 4 sudden flood in the
Mississippi from above, the insufiiciency of the
levecs, and the papers say the partial dammlng
OF the Mississippi by the narrowing of us
principal outlet by the Eads ietics. Indeed
the whole country below New Orleans is com
planning of It's greater liability to overflow on
account OF the jcttics.
JHE LAST BLIZZARD
The heavy snow storm that set in here on
Thursday evening, and gave us over foot of
snow, the heaviest single snow fall Of the sea
son, seems 10 have been confined manly TO "A |
region west 81 the Indiana line The storm
way to Denver, but it was accompanied with
little wind and there was no drifting, very lit
tie railroad Dlockudlng or other damage at
tended it. The weather continues SO mild
with /, all rs 10 indicate "A coming thaw.