The San Francisco call., 1904-12-28

western Missouri street car tra1nc was
at a standstill by noon.
The storm by noon had reached East
ern 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 1t was
found possible to keep the street cars
running, although great havoc was
wrought with the telegraph and tele-
phone wires.
RACES IN NORTHWEST.
At Omaha and Des Moines conditions
similar to those in Kansas City were
reported and both places were in bad
shape early in the day.
All over the Western States the storm
increased in violence throughout the
morning and at noon was raging with
great fury. All trains in this section
were reported from one to six hours
late, and constantly losing time.
In the Northwest the storm was even
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 fifty miles an hour. The
storm Travelled westward from ST. Paul
until 1T covered almost the entire
Northwest.
From the Dakotas, Eastern Montana,
wyoming, Northern Michigan and Wis
consin came stories of damage by the
storm. The wires in all directions were
down, the snow filled the streets and
street cars were for the most part COM
PEELED to stop running and all trains
were far behind time.
HEAVY WINDS IN SOUTH.
In the South conditions were some
what better, the snow in many places
being changed into a heavy rainfall
preceded by thunder and lightning and
followed by heavy winds. Nashville,
Louisville, New Orleans, Montgomery
and Memphis reported exceedingly
heavy rains, rapidly falling ther-
mometer 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 poatmen along the
Ohio and its tributaries, for the stage
been very low and navigation was diff
ficult in many places.
HURRICANE IN CHICAGO.
The storm struck Chicago shortly
fa9ftegL noon and kpGreaaed with great
Eapldjt%- suptit{ ito had SassHWed 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
by o'clock had dropped to fifty miles
an hour where IL remained throughout
the night with occasional gusts that
howled through the streets with the
force Of a cyclone, tearing down signs,
smashing in plate glass windows, and
In many sections of the downtown
districts hurting pedestrians from
their feet and oYerturning delivery
wagons.
Early in the afternoon the police
found it necessary to station extra Of
ficers at the corner Of State and Ran
dolph streets, where the Masonic Tenn
pie, twenty-five stories in height, al
ways creates a terrific increase in the
natural rapidity of the wind, and at the
corner of Monroe and Dearborn streets,
where the new building of the First
National Bank acts in a similar man
ner. From 3 o'clock until after the
five minutes that the officers were not
compelled to carry some woman, who
had been thrown from her feet and
was unable to cross the street.
In all parts of the city trees were
blown down, chimneys toppled over
and several frame shackS were leveled
to the ground.
Between noon and o'clock in the
evening the mercury dropped from "a
to II.
VAST DAMAGE REPORTED.
The late reports from Wisconsin are
that the storm was the most severe
ever known in that section. Damage
in Madison is estimated at 500, 900.
In Indiana the damage by the storm
is estimated in the hundreds Of thou
sands. The damage was especially
heavy in the oil fields, where fully 500
derricks were blown down and all op-
erations suspended. Near Muncie
Frank Cavanaugh was killed by q fall
ing derrick. The loss on derricks alone
in the neighborhood of Muncie, is
placed at 100000.
Late dispatches from Nebraska state
that the storm was the most severe
tn a NV ro nA hot oil k,.ot