The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1905-02-11
THOUSANDS OF
POLES ARE DOWN
Frozen Rain Break
Wires ana Sce-E aden
Trees Are B0rs1e
10 Ground.
IN MEMORY Or OLDEST INHABl-
TANT NO SIMILAR DESTRUc-
TON HAS EVER VISITED CITY
NOT STREET CAR WHEEL HAS
TURNED FOR THREE DAYS.

Atlanta, Ca. Feb. 10.--( Special by
Mail. All weather REGARDS have been
smashed in Atlanta Tor The past three
DAYS. Enough the Temperature
has been nothing extreae, the rain
which has fallen froze as it fell and
completed the work begun by the sleet
of Saturday and Sunday.
The city was completely tied up
throughout to-day. Neither afternoon
paper carried line Of telegraph mat
ter and the Constitution appeared this
morning with a seven column line
across the front page announcing that
not line in it had reached the office
by wire.
Street cars stood still throughout
the day and last night the city was
in almost total darkness. Falling
trees and poles had made such tan
gle of wires outside the district where
they are underground that the city au-
thorities refused TO allow the current
TO be turned into the mains for fear
of scattering death and eonf1agration.
Telegraph Companies Not Operating.
Both telegraph companies are COM
pletely out of business as were the
long distance lines of the telephone
company and the city was entirely cuc
off from the outside world During
the whole of yesterday and last night
the Associated Press die mt succeed
in getting a line of news into the
city and Atlantians who read their pa
pers over their breakfast this morn
ing knew no more of what happened
in the world yesterday than news
paper readers knew in the days before
Morse made his great discovery.
There has been much suffering from
the cold and wet and physicians fea.
an epidemic of pneumonia as a result
of the exposure which the lack of
transportation facilities has forced on
the business population, but so far no
loss of life has been reported as due
TO weather conditions.
Business has been paralyZed, all
social affairs have been called of, and
even funerals postponed.
Thousands of Poles Down.
Locally the street car system is COM
pleteIy knocked out, and not whe i
has turned since midnight of Tuesday.
No electric lights have been in use
in the city outside of the immediate
center of the city, where the wires are
run underground. Since Sunday night,
with the exception of a brief period
between the storm of Sunday and that
which followed on Tuesday afternoon
and night. railroad communication has
been in much better shape. but as
no wires have been available for the
management of trains, the schedules
have been uncertainty maintained and
trains have been arriving from a few
minutes to ten hours late.
Southern Superintendent Lavine of
the Western Union reports this morn
ing the possibility of reaching outside
points by tonight. but he says that
within his jurisdiction, fully three
thousand poles are down. c. II. Bris-
toll, general superintendent of con-
struction of the Western Union Tele
graph Company. has arrived from New
York to take charge of the situation.
bringing with him about two hundred
men, besides large quantities of ma
terial for repairs and reconstruction.
Neither Office will venture an esti-
mate of the damage caused by the
two storms of sleet which came 81
SAOoC NO6ClnCl ne uduldk6 CdlSR6
by the storm of Sunday had been
largely overcome when the second
storm came. undoing all repair work
that had been made and adding enor-
mouSly TO the original damage.
The company reports that the most
serious damage seems 10 have been
done in the vicinity of Atlanta. al
though the meager reports from Mem
pris and New Orleans indicate that
the territory west of Georgia has been
a severe sufferer.
Worse in Memory of Oldest Inhabitant
Postal Telegraph Company reports
similar damage, and its officials here
confirm the report that Atlanta seems
to have been the center of the storm
troubles.
Locally the situation is about the
worst in the memory of the oldest in
habitants Besides the damage TO
wires in the city, the loss to the shade
trees has been enormous. The ice
in every part of the city. Immense
trees have been torn up by the roots
and have fallen across the wires de-
laying and shutting off completely all
street car traffic. lighting and tele.
phone communication. The street ca
company has reported itself ready to