The Savannah morning news., 1904-12-28
IN THE GRASP OF
FIERCE BLIZZARD
MANY STATES sHIVERED.
ONE OF THE MOST SEVERE STORMS
OF RECENT YEARS.

Territory Between the Rocky Noun
tains and the Great Lakes Has
Caught 1t Most Heavily Up to This
Time-Trafic Greatly Impeded.
Much Damage DOne-Three Lives
Lost i'm ChicagO-StOrm Is Wide
sOread.
Chicago, Dec. 27.-One of the most
severe storms of recent years has been
raging through the territory lying be-
tween the Rocky mountains and the
Great Lakes since early this morning
and has caused much trouble to street
car companies. railroads and telegraph
companies. In it's extent the storm
was the most widespread of any dur
ing the last fifteen years.
Counting the fog as a component
part of the storm, it stretched clear
from the Rocky mountains to New
York and from Winnipeg to New Or
leans
The fatalities reported here as due
to the storm are three men killed.
They were:
Alexander Steiner, a teamster. killed
while unloading coal. A coal chute
was blown from it's fastenings and
striking him on the head, killed him
instantly.
Thomas Walsh, laborer, struck by
heavy board while entering a new
building. The board cut his head
nearly off.
Frank Cavanaugh was killed at Mum
Gle, Ind, by an oil derrick falling on
him.
SubsidiDE at Kansas City.
At 10 O'Clock tonight the storm was
reported as subsiding at Kansas City.
and at other points on a north and
south line from that city. In Chicago
and east of here the storm was still
raging with great violence, and was
expected to continue throughout the
night, the center of the storm being
between Chicago and Cleveland.
Reports from Kansas City were that
the storm extended from Missouri as
far south as Indian Territory, and was
accompanied throughout it's entire
length by high winds, and snow drift
ed badly.
In the Northwest the storm was even
more violent. In st. Paul the snow
commenced to fail early last night and
grew heavier all through the night,
while the wind increased until it was
blowing fifty miles an hour. The heavy
snow and the gale worked havoc with
wires, and some passenger trains from
the Pacific coast were reported to-
night as twenty-four hours over due.
The storm reached westward from
st. Paul until it covered almost the
entire West.
Better in the South.
In the South conditions were some
what better, snow in many places be-
ing changed to heavy rainfall, which
was preceded by thunder and light
ming and followed by high winds.
Nashville, Louisville, New Orleans,
Montgomery and Memphis all reported
exceedingly heavy rains, rapidly fall
ing thermometer and terrific winds.
In the Ohio river valley the first
heavy rain in five months commenced
falling early in the day and continued
throughout the night. The storm was
appreciated by the boatmen along the
Ohio and it's tributaries, for the stage
of water in those streams has of late
been very low.
seventy-Two Miles an Hour.
The storm struck Chicago shortly
after noon and increased with great
rapidity until it had assumed hurri-
cane violence at $50 o'clock, when the
wind tore through the downtown
streets at the rate of seventy-two miles
an hour. 1t fell away after that and
at o'clock had dropped to fifty miles
an hour, where it remained through
the night.
Between noon and o'clock in the
evening the mercury dropped from "a
to IL.
The late reports from Wisconsin are
that the storm was the most severe
ever experienced in that section Of the
country. Damage in the city of Madi-
son is estimated at 100000. In Indi-
ana the damage done by the storm was
especially heavy in the old fields, where
fully 500 derricks were blown down
and all operations suspended. The
loss on derricks alone in the neighbor-
hood of Muncie is placed at $200, 900,
and at $4,000 around Portland.