Omaha daily bee., 1907-01-16
COLD WAVE IN NORTHWEST
Thermometer Registers Fifty-Five Degrees
Below Zero at Browning, Mont,
sNowDRlFTs OVER TWENTY FEET HIGH
Rotary PIows Are Unable to Clear
Railroad Tracks I'm Many Sec
tions-Fight 60 Keep Coal
Trains Moving.

ST. PAUL. Mimi. Jan. 15.-Unusual cold
weather prevails throughout the northwest.
with no immediate relief In sight. Snow
blocks the railroads and the temperature
has fallen many degrees. 1t is reported at
the Great Northern general office that
the mercury registered IS degrees below
zero this morning at Browning, Mont. and
that there is no point between Grand
Forks and Spokane where the maximum
temperature is above SS below zero. The
Great Northern employees are battling
against the snowdrifts, which are twenty
and thirty feet high.
The greatest tie-up on the Great North
ern line has occurred in the district be
tween Browning and Cut Bank, Mont, a
distance Of about forty miles. In this dis
trict rotary plows are sent against the
banks without result and, though plows
are kept going continually 1t is impossible
TO clear the tracks. Plows are sent against
the banks and are not heard of for hours.
The snowfall in the west is greater than
ever known before. Between the Cascade
and Rocky mountains, where there Is
scarcely ever any snow drifts are now
piled seven feet high.
The Great Northern line between Ken
mare and Thief River Falls has been
abandoned. Trains which connect with
Il
Moosejaw have been delayed so badly that
service is almost at a standstill. All the
| telegraph wires are down and 1t is i'm
| possible to get trains through the drifts.
On the lines where traffic is at all pos
sible the trains are run with three and
even four engines and preceded by rotary
pows, but even then have been delayed
| from one to three days.
| Coal Trains Are Moving
| WASHINGTON. Jan. 15.-Additional COM
plants were received today from North
| Dakota points complaining of the fuel sit
uation and reporting either scarcity or an
| entire exhaustion of the coal supply. Dis
patches also came from President Elicit
of the Northern Pacific and President Hill
of the Great Northern.
The kilograms were all referred TO Com
missioner Harlan. who tonight expressed
! the opinion that both the railroads were
doing everything possible without regard
to expense to relieve the situation. He said
| that at some points the roads were facing
extraordinary weather conditions with great
accumulations of snow
President Elliott telegraphed that on
January IA there were loaded at the head
of the lakes 365 cars of coal. s43 cars are
| in transit between Duluth and jamestown,
OF which 1S5 are moving for Fargo and the
west and sixty at jamestown for points
north. Mr.. Elliott says the company is
making the clearing away of snow and the
movement of coal it's chief business Sew
eral cars of coal in transit for the school at
Fort Totten will be hurried to destination.
President Hill said his company had six
freight trains moving.
TacOma's Water supply Cut OF.
TACOMA, Wash, Jan. 15.-The tempera-
ture fell to ter degrees above freezing last
night, which caused the water power plant
| at Elrecton TO freeze up, and the city
pumping plants are out of fuel much In
convenience is caused, In the country dis
tricts temperature was two below, unpre-
cedented weather in the Puget sound
region
| Kansas Blizzard Broken.
! KANSAS CITY, Jan. 15.-The force Of the
blizzard that prevailed in this part of the
southwest last night was broken today and
milder weather was predicted. Trains were