The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1909-02-05
A DESTRUCTIVE SLEET STORM.
Poles and Wires Frustrated by the
Raging Blizzard.

Not since the winter of 1881 has a
storm of greater severity visited this
section of the state th2n that which
began with rain at four clock on
Thursday evening, later turning to sleet
and snow and winding up with roaring
blizzard that ragged all day Friday.
The sleet and snow froze as soon as it
fell, covering wires with heavy coat
ing until they were weighted down be-
)yond their carrying strength and poles,
wires and all were brought down in a
tangled mass. The loss sustained by
the telegraph, telephone and electric
/ light companies in this section of the
state far exceeds that ever before ex-
perienced and it will probably take
months to repair the damage and put
business upon It's normal basis. To
make matters worse, the heavy gale
that accompanied the blizzard when it
headed down from the northwest con-
| tinued the work of destruction among
the heavy laden wires. The swapping
of a single pole acting as sort of a
ilever that carried down one after an
other like the falling down of cob
how good the construction was, if the
line carried wires enough they We're
pretty apt to go down in such storm.
Even the A. T. & T. main trunk line,
running few miles east of town and
of the very best construction, lost a
mile or more of pole line between Rock
river and town Of Albion limits, so
| heavily were their wires laden with
snow and ice.
/ Up to Friday evening the Edgerton
Electric Light Co. had lost none of its
poles and were maintaining its service
but about z O'Clock the gale brought
down eighteen poles between the power
station at Indian Ford and town. Man
ager Pomeroy Immediately set about
to repair the damage, but the highway
i being filled with snow banks and wires
buried and frozen to the ground, made
the work slow and difficult Thursday
evening, however, service was partially
resumed and in a few days the entire
i plant will be working again.
! With the telephone company their
Kchief trouble was with the toll lines
and country circuits, all of which were
knocked out. The service of most of
city patrons, served by cable connec-
tions was not interrupted, but on the
line leading Albion way about 80 poles
were down and on the Fulton line 20 or
more, so that altogether about 100
poles will have to be replaced. Man
| ager Brown has big force at work but
it will probably be two or three weeks
before complete service to all subscrib-
ers will be restored. The toll line to
Stoughton and GAINESVILLE was repaired
SO that outside connections We're made
on Monday, though but small portion
of the state is yet in speaking distance.
The repair force of the American
Telephone and Telegraph Co. landed
Saturday, bringing big reels of cable
by express and set about to repair the
damage to the big through copper line
which went down in a number of places
in this vicinity. Without attempting
to restore the poles they laid water
proof cable on the ground between the
breaks, putting the line into working
condition leaving repairs to be made in
| the spring.
The storm that carried down the tel
egraph lines made the movement of
trains slow and difficult and the biz
card that piled up the snow in high
drifts delayed or suspended traffic ma
terially for two or three days. Satur-
day afternoon three freight trains rum
/ ming in sections were taken out from
Milwaukee to Madison with the train
dispatcher accompanying them and di-
recting their movement. BY Sunday
traffic had been resumed on this divis-
ion with considerable regularity. But
a passenger train that left Milwaukee
Friday evening over the Waterfowl di-
1 vision for Madison was snow bound and
did not reach it's destination until Mon
day forenoon, nearly three days on the
road.
The storm will cost the local tele-
phone and electric light company a
good round sum aside from the loss of
revenue, and illustrates what risk from
the elements such property is subject
ed to. At Stoughton, Madison and
nearly every other town in this section
of the state these utilities have suffer-
ed probably greater loss still and the
storm will long be remembered as the
I most disasterous one coming this gem
GRAFTON.
The rural mail carriers started out
Saturday morning with good intentions,
but after foundering about in the snow