Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1905-04-24
WIRES AND POLES co DOWN,
This City Plunged In Darkness and
Street Car Service Stopped
In a Twlukllng
LITTLE REAL DAMAGE WAS DONE.
But for Hours There Was Net a
Single Wire Working Between the
Capital and the Jaactlsa City

one of the worst wndstorms In the
history OF local meteorology occurred
In the northern part Of this state last
evening, but while Il did a good deal Of
damage, the damage was contint prin-
cipally to telegraph, telephone ald rail-
road communication, and electrical
lighting. The skies couded up early in
the day, and gusts OF wind steadily in
creased in intensity until by evening
the skies were completely overcast, and
series Of gales started in gradually
growing stronger and stronger In fact
when the good people Of Salt Lake and
ogden woke up this morning, they
found their towns practically cut off
from the rest of the world, for commu-
nication by wire was severed except by
the very narrow margin Of two or three,
WHEN STORM BROKE.
The storm broke loose In its fury
shortly after $3.50 o'clock in the evening,
when succession Of furious blasts
blew down telegraph telephone and
electric light poles between this city
and ogden, one after another, un-
I'll the three great systems were pros
trate and out Of commission. Indeed,
when the 1880 Short Line train came
south passengers feared that the train
would blow over near Pennington, and
old timers remembered the blowing
over OF a narrow gage Rio Grando
train near kdysville II years ago, in
which there were miraculous escapes
from injury. The Western Union COM
pany has IL wires along the Short Line
right Of way and nine on the Rio
Grande, all of which went down, and
the Postal wires suffered the same fate,
However the Postal was able TO use It's
Park city and Echo wires for eastern
communication, and the Rio Grande
had communication with Grand juno
ton, but east Of Grand junction tho
wires were said to be all down, The
Independent Telephone wires went by
the board, and but two of the Bell COM
pany's wires were left. However, by
these last two the railroads were able
10 make some progress in operating,
though the work was necessarily
slow. So many poles We're blown
down between this city and Ogden
that il seemed as though they
clear north to Butte. there was trou-
HE with the poles up there, and Brig
ham city and Pocatello were also cut
off from communication with the out
side. Logan, however appeared to he
IN the center Of a storm vacuum, for
the blasts blew around II and never
touched IT," The wires were prostrat-
ed as far east as Cheyenne and DenNer
on the Union Pacific ana even west of
ogden through Nevada the wires were
down. In fact the storm seemed gen
eral over the entire country west of
the 95th meridian to the coast ranges,
CITY IN DARKNESS.
Salt Lake was struck by the full force
~ the storm at 10 O'Clock. and as by
that time the Utah Light & Railway
Companys wires were nearly all down,
the city was I'm comparative dark
ness and the street cars took rest.
However with characteristic energy,
the management hurried the Jordan
station into commission, and inside Of
mn hour the lights were going and the
cars running again, Owing to the late
ness OF the hour there was not nearly
MS much Inconvenience experienced as
there would have been had the trou-
BILE occurred two hours earlier when
the evening services In the churches
were being carried on, The bowling
gales swept through the streets, envel-
oping the city I'm clouds of dust, rHttlmg
windows until citizens feared a cyclone
was coming, The velocity of the wind
IN this city averaged "a miles an hour
but in gusts II rose TO 40 miles. Line
men were hurredly sent out from this
city In any conveyances that could be
secured, TO repair damages but owing
TO the intense darkness--for lights OF
any character were absent, the line
men had rather strenuous time of t.
The northbound midnight train over
the Short Line, was held at Farming
ton by freight train feeling it's way
south, and at Kaysville by the roof
Of freight car that had blown across
the track. The train reached Ogden
over an hour late.
OGDEN HIT HARD.
Ogden caught it's full share Of the
blasts. A switch engine In the yards
got hung UP by a pole falling across
with an immense conglomeIa-
uon OF wires, and at last ac-
counts this morning, II was still I'm
etatu quo. Warehouses near the
railroads and number OF freight
cars had their roofs blown off
the roof OF the George A. Lowe
warehouse on Wall avenue landing at
some distance on a mass of telegraph
ana telephone wires. A boy named
Greenwell, while riding his wheel along
washington avenue, ducked his head
10 escape squat OF wind, and i'm
hledlately ran into team, His head
was badly cut and after being attend
"a 10 in drug store he was sent to his
nome There was lightning In the more
northern part OF the state which COM
pHcated matters electrically. Both the
telegraph and telephone people started
IN 70 make repairs Immediately after
trouble but the damage was such that
! promised TO be well into this after
noon before anything like effective re-
pairs could be made.
REVIEW OF DAMAGE.
inquiry this noon develops that the
Damage to the telephone and telegraph
3clllties, and TO the lighting and power
pants was not no far reaching az first
reported. The poles OF the Utah Light