Arizona republican., 1904-12-28
STORM
Distinguished by It's Violence
 and Wide Area
MIDDLE WEST INVOLVED
The Worst in YcarS-Trains Held up, Street Car Service at a Standstill and Altogether the Damage ConA0t Be Estimated.

Chicago, Dec. 27.-One of the sever est storms of recent years has ragged throughout the territory lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes since early morning and has caused much trouble to street car companies, railroads and telegraph companies. The latter were the great CT sufferers from the blizzard which swept through the west and northwest during the last twenty-four hours and which was preceded by a heavy fog and drizZling rain, which made the wires almost unavoidable. The in tense cold and terrific gale that fol- lowed close upon the fog, coated the wires with ice and later in the day threw the poles to the ground. crip-' bling the companies badly Railroad trains were badly delayed all through the west, some of them being twenty four hours late. Street car traffic in all the cities of the west and north west was practically at a standstill at some time during the day. In it's extent the storm was the most widespread of any during the last hr- teen years. Counting fog as a com ponent part of a storm, it stretched from the Rocky Mountains to New York and from Winnipeg to New Or leans.
 The only fatalities due to the storm in this city were: Alexander Steiner, a teamster, killed while unloading coal A chute was blown from it's fastenings and. striking Steiner on the head, killed him instantly. Thomas Walsh, a laborer, was struck by heavy board while entering new
 
 ton boulevard. The board almost cut his head off.
 At ten o'clock tonight the storm was reported as subsiding at Kansas City and other points north and south of line from that city but it will be several days before normal conditions are restored throughout the, entire section. At 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 early in the day were that the storm extended from the middle of Missouri and as far south as Indian Territory and was accompanied throughout its entire extent by high winds and snow,
  one foot deep. It was drifted so badly by the gale. however. that in nearly all the cities of Nebraska. Kansas and western Missouri the street car traffic was at a standstill by noon. Telegraph wires were down in all directions and it was with extreme difficulty that communication with the west and northwest was kept up. All trains through that part of the country were hopelessly behind schedule time early in the afternoon ard the railroads gave up all idea of attempting to get them i through on time and devoted their en- ergy to moving them in the best man ner possible.
 The storm by noon had reached wes- tern Missouri and the temperature in St. Louis went down twenty degrees in two hours. while the wind, blowing forty miles an hour. piled the snow up in the streets in great drifts. It was found impossible to keep the street cars running, and great havoc was wrought with telegraph and telephone wires
 At Omaha and Des Moines condi- tions similar to those in Kansas City were reported and both places were in bad condition early in the day Before
 
 light circuits in Omaha were out of business and the outlying districts were without Nights All over the western states the storm increased in violence throughout the morning and at noon it was raging with great fury. All trains in this section were from ! one to six hours late and constantly losing time. In Des Moines the street car traffic was entirely suspended ear ly in the day.
 In the northwest the storm was e1en more violent than throughout Missouri and Iowa. In St. Paul the snow com menced falling early last night and grew heavier all through the night. while the wind increased until it was blowing at the rate of fifty miles an hour. The heavy snow and gale work ed havoc with the railroads, and some of the passenger trains from the Pa cific coast were reported tonight as making slow progress. The storm reached westward from almost the entire northwest and from the Dakotas, eastern Montana, Wyoming, northern Michigan and Wisconsin. The story was the same from all points. The wires in all di- rections were down, the snow was falling in dense volume and, driven by high northwest gale, was filling the streets and railroad cuts so tightly that the street cars were for the most part compelled to stop running and all trains were far behind time
 In the soutl, conditions were some what better the snow in many places being changed into heavy rainfall, pre- ceded by thunder and lightning and fol- lowed by high winds. Nashville, Louisville. New Orleans, Montgomery and Memphis all reported exceedingly heavy rains. a rapidly falling ther- mometer and terrific winds.
 In the Ohio river valley, the first heavy rain in five months commenced falling early i'll the day and continued IL. IL rr.1--