Evening star., 1909-03-06
CALAMITY VISITS
LOCAL COMPANIES
Results of Recent Storm Un-
usually Disastrous.
WIRES DOWN EVERYWHERE
WIRES DOWN EVERYWHERE
Telephone and Telegraph Lines and
Railroads Paralyzed.
LONG TIME TO REPAIR DAMAGE
Workmen Being Brought Here From
Distant Points to Assist
in Eliminating.

From the north, the east. the south and
the west. men are pouring into Washing
ton in response TO the cries for assistance
from the telegraph, telephone and trans
portation companies, which are bending
every effort to bring about a rapid res
toration of their services. which were al
most completely paralyZed within radius
Of 100 miles of Washington by the recent
storm.
What the cost to the various public serv-
lee companies will be or when their equip
ment will be restored to anything like
normal conditions the officials cannot be-
gin 10 estimate.
They know that they are making prog
ress; that things are improving slightly
all the time, but how rapid the improve
ment is, or even the extent of the damage,
they cannot tell. They only know that
the damage is appalling, serious enough
for them to send for men from far-distant
divisions on their systems and throw them
into q comparatively restricted territory in
the hope that an unusual force of expert
linemen and repair men will be able to
restore order from chaos in a reasonable
period.
Work Purely Physical.
The work of restoration is purely phy-
scal. In a few short hours nature
brought TO naught the work of years, and
rendered useless some of the greatest
scientific Improvements of the twentieth
century.
out of commission and within the storm
zone men are as they were before tele
graph and telephone systems were in
vented.
The re-establshment of wire connection
with the outside world is to be brought
about by the brain-drected brute force of
humanity. Gangs of men get into wagon
and go out along the wire lines. tearing
down broken wires, poles and cross arms,
and cutting and putting up new poles
ON which to string the wires.
And this is no child's play. Powerful
men. Injured to hardship and long hours OF
physical labor. are exhausting- themselves
at 1t. In addition to the actual work of
putting up the wires. they meet with hun
dredS of other obstacles in the course of
the labors. SnOwdriftS block them at ev-
cry tprn. They find difficulty in getting
teams to carry their equipment, for 1t is
not a matter of putting the equipment
and the crews on trains and sending them
quickly to a point of trouble. There are
thousands of points of trouble. for the
telegraph and telephone lines for many
miles out of Washington are a total
wreck
Crew Forced to Return.
crew of ten men left Washington
last night to work on the Western Union
wires to the north. They were forced to
return to the city without having accom-
plished anything, for the simple reason
that the snow was SO deep and the roads
heavy that no team of horses that
ever wore harness could pull wagon
through them.
To the business man who sits in his
we'll equipped, well heated city Office and
fumes and fretS because he cannot get
into communication with his country resi-
dence ten or twenty miles out of Wash
ington it appears that the service com
panies should be able to right the wrong
IL twelve fifteen hours.
why don't they send some men out
there and put the wires up? What is
the use of this delay?''
AS well ask the same man whose well
provided larder might suffice to satisfy
the hunger of fifty men for day 10
suddenly prepare Il meal for 10000 In
auguration visitors.
Task Is Gigantic.
1t is not d question of ordinary acct
dent which could be quickly remedied
by an extra outlay of money. There is
plenty of money and plenty OF equipment
to meet any ordinary emergency. but the
havoc wrought by the blizzard is. 10 a
degree, not unlike damage by earth
qualics. II is so gigantic that no human
agency could repair il in limited time.
While the telegraph and telephone com
panies are I'm little better condition
today than at any time since ThursdaN
morning, direct connection with the nortf
is still cut off absolutely. There is no
a line between Washington and Balti
more. The only quick connection be
tween these two cities is by wirees.
telegTaphy-
New York is reached by relays through
the south and west. The trouble in Tn,
south amounted TO comparatively littl,
and it was the southern connection whicl
saved the day.
Some of the telegraph lines reach New
York from Birming ham, Ala, through
chicago. Others go to Richmond theme,
TO Atlanta, thence To Louisville thence
to Chicago and through Buffalo TO New
York city.
Railroad Companies Affected.
But direct communication in other iii
rections Is cut off at Cumberland on IN,
west and baltimore on the north rh,