The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-12-03
SCENE ON WAIVER sTREEr.

oCE-NE oN WAITER STREET.
water street last night presented a
sccne OF wreck and confusion. About
o'clock the tremendous weight of sleet
ana snow on the BELL telephone wires ON
the north side of the street caused every
pole between Church and Newcastle
street TO break down, ana left but three
"a, nahuins between Commercial Place and
me Norfolk and Western depot, on that
'iue OF the street. a number of poles
eli on the other side OF the street also.
ma the thoroughfare was entirely
Nockaded. In front OF the Clyde Line
'arehouse a number OF cars were
caught In the debris, and could not be
moved.
"A little further up u locomotive and
train of cars was caught in n similar
way and could not be shifted backward
OF forward. a force of laborers was at
olce put 10 work and spent the best
part of the night cutting away the poles
mtllch lay across the street. IN an en-
ueaVor TO create II passage from the
uepot to the Old Dominion wharyes
IHeir am lanterns. moving here and
there as the workmcn went from pole
10 pole, progressing cautiously through
the net work OF wires, furnished the
ohiy lights upon this thoroughfare. and
served but poorly to relieve the almost
otyslan blacknesS. TO add to the con-
Iusloh the nigh tide brought the water
from the harbor up into the street TO y
hne extending almost exactly down its
center, and walking on the south side.
Tor several blocks. was out of tha uues
tion for several hours
THE PHONES SUFFERED.
The telephone companies suffered. es-
pec!ally the Bell. The chief operator of
inc latter reports IS poles down ON
water street and 100 wires, aspreratInp
ABOUT Tour miles. One pole was re-
ported down on York street. CommunI-
cation with Berkley and Portsmouth has
ueeh cut or owing to the approaches to
the cable being down, and seventy-fiye
stations are cut out and will remain en-
until repairs can be made. which will
require several days. This company re-
ports wires down in all parts of the city.
The southern States' company was
,iol , So Dhdiy damaged. but a large num-
Der OF their wires, recently put up, were
Frustrated. The underground system
was not. of course, affected One pole
was reported fallen on Yarmouth street
ana others are believed to be down.
1--we street, between Bank and Avon,
was impossible. Eight poles were down
between Church and Chapel streets.
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY.
AT midnight. and even sooner. the citv
was In almost total darkness with the
exception of Brambleton. the circuit
embracing that ward being unaffected
by the storm. Otherwise every light I'm
'ne CITY was out. a portion of all the
cial. are down and dangerous wires were
reported early in the night on Water.
w ood queen and Main streets The
lights on the first and last named thor
oughfares were cut out at the instance
of Chief Ryan, of the Fire Department
because the live wires coming in con-
tact with the Dro9;rated telephone lines
made liability TO fire very great, to say
nothing to the dangerous chance of man
or beast running into n broken wire.
AL y O'Clock lnesman was sent
around to see what could be done but
came In after n hard struggle with the
storm reporting that the system was In
such a condition that nothing could be
done before daylight.
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT.
AS n result of the storm the city is
practically at the mercy of fire. The
lines are all out. the portions most af-
fected being In Ghent, on Water street
and about the corner of Chapel and
Queen streets. The Chief and Electri-
clan Smith made the rounds and en-
deavored to patch up the circuit but
about as fast as one box was cut in
another would be out. The Chief took
the precaution TO have the electric light
current cut out wherever there was a
danger of crossing wires. as an accident
OF this character would have burned
out all the old style boxes, about twelve
in number, though the ten new stations
owing to their improved construction,
would not have been affected \ num-
Der of alarms came in during the night,
caused by the fire system being crossed
by telephone wires.
THE STREET CAR COMPANY.
The street car company, though q lit
tie puzzled during the early portion OF
evening, was only temporarily embar-
rassed, and ran cars until the usual
hour, much to the relief of belated c.ti-
zens. In number of instances, consid-
cradle delay was experienced, and In
one case two cars would have passed
each other on the same track on CRANKY
street had this performance been pos
slble. The motormen had a terrible
time of it, facing the driving binding
snow and the conductors were hardly
less lucky.
POLICE DID THEIR DUTY WE'LL.
The police force had terrible night OF
II, but the men did their duty bravely,
(ContinuedS ON Third Pare ~ sSsN