The record-union., 1898-11-28
Traffic Demorallzed and Communication
Paralyzed.
Mark Of the Tides Along Shore Ex-
ceeded Only by the Memorable
Hurricane Of 1851-Shipping
Was Warned and Staid in Safe
Harbors, but the Railroads
Were Caught Mapping.

ing november pIlzZard swept over the
greater portion of New England last
night and to-day, completely demoraliz-
ing traffic of every description and woll
night paralyzing telegraphic and tele-
phonic communication, while the north
east gale, coming on a. high course of
tides, drove the sea far beyond its
usual limits and made a mark along
shore exceeded only by the memorable
hurricane of 1861.
While the storm was heaviest i'm ihe
southeastern part of New England. the
whole district was affected and exper-
fenced snowstorm of from eight to
tWenty-four inches and as the center
OF the disturbance moved down the
Maine coast, that section and the pro-
vlnces will probably receive a similar
taste of winter weather tonight.
fortunately the storm was heralded
sufficiently in advance by the Weather
Bureau to detain most of the coast ship
ping In safe harbors, but the warning
was entirely unheeded and ignored by
those on shore with the result that
nearly everyone, especially the railroads
anu electric companies were caught
mapping and suffered ACCORDINGLY.
Ihere was not railroad in New Eng
land that was not more or less tied up
by the heavy fall of snow and the grear
drifts, and roads running along the
coast, like the New York, New Haven
and Hartford. and the Boston and
Maine, had the added difficulty of fre-
quent washouts in places exposed to
the heavy seas
Trains north, east, south and west
a to11 117
night, although one train from Bangor
reached Lynn this noon and no Chi
cago trains came into the city this
evening.
In cities and towns dependent upon
electric cars. service was even worse,
Tor the damp snow packed hard on the
rams and held UP even the heavy snow
plows.
The service in this city was probably
the best Of any of the surrounding
community, yet even here there was no
attempt made to run more than dozen
cars on Washington street and one or
two others of the main thoroughfares.
The storm, while not SO severe and
far-reaching in it's effects as the fear
full blizzard Of last February, was new
ertheless the heaviest experienced IN
November in this part of the country
for a long series Of years. Coming on
Sunday it did not cause the ANNOYANCE
or inconvenience it would have done on
a week day and most of the transporta-
ton companies made a heroic effort to
at least partially recover from the ef-
fects Of the blockade.
Only the barest reports were received
up to 6 o'clock tonight of the effects
of the storm on the coast, but even
those few lines gave rise to the grayest
fears as to the safety of what little
shipping that may have been off Cape
Cod last night or to-day. 1t will prob
ably be two or three days before a
complete list of the disasters can be
made.
All points south of this city and east
of Providence were isolated early last
evening, New Bedford being lost to the
outside world before O'clock and New
port and Fall River disappearing into
the night not long after.
Farther to the west. at Providence
and in other parts of Rhode Island.
communication was intermittent and
subject to great delay Night trains
over the shore line to New York
reached Providence with only a few
minutes delay, but beyond that point
they met terrific drifts and it was morn
ing before either of the two regular
trains reached New London. Here they
were stalled nearly all day by freight
wrecks on the road between that point
and New Haven. The trains from New
York met similar experience west IF
Saybrook and after some hours of tele-
graphing they managed to reach New
London and started late in the after
noon for Providence.
At noon to-day the regular New York
express from Chicago left Springfield
for this city, followed a short time later
by the morning express from the West
and, barring a slight delay from a
wreck at East Brookfeld, came through
to this city all right.