The Globe-republican., 1909-12-02
THE FROZEN CITY.
Every Tree, Telephone Pole and
Wire in a Crystal Case
MUCH DAMAGE IS RESULT
Weight Of Ice Breaks Down Trees and Tee.
graph and Telephone Service Crippled

The storm of Saturday night and
Sunday was another record breaker
for Western Kansas. Never before
in the memory Of the Oldest resident
has 30 much moisture fallen in the
month OF November nor in such q
way. We have had sleet storms in
the past but none Of the magnitude
OF this one.
The storm began in the usual way
Saturday evening with turn Of the
wind to the north, which betokened
nothing more than the usual cool
wave, The rain began about eight
o'clock and continued till Monday
morning when the first let-up was
noticed, and in that time 2.77 inches
had fallen. But it was not the
amount Of water 80 much as the way
it had Of coming down. The tenn
perature was just at that point where
most Of Of the precipitation froze as
it fell and gave the trees, wires and
all other objects such coating of ice
as they never had before The wires
became over an inch in diameter and
then finished up with countless
icicles. The trees took on o thick
coat and the small branches were
swollen to many times their real size.
This gave them such load that they
could not carry it and early Sunday
the trees began to give way and the
Tres began to break. By noon
great havoc was wrought and from
that time on it grew worse with the
hours.
The wires became SO entangled all
over the city that it was deemed ad
visable to cut off the current, and at
night the city went without light.
The telephone service was somewhat
demoralized and the different parts
OF the town were more isolated than
they mad been since the phone system
was first established.
Monday morning everybody was
out to see what damage had been
done. Wires blockaded the streets
in many places so that it was impos-
sible to drive until the linemen began
cutting the wires and clearing the
streets. Several poles and the cable
were down along by the Christian
church. Up Central avenue the line
was flat for two blocks, and the east
and the west lines we're yet worse.
Manager Barnett was out early with
all the men he could muster and
busy with the work, but he was up
against a serious task. This storm
has been a very severe blow to the
telephone company and il will take a
long time to clear up the mess. The
manager thinks that it will take
$4,000 to make good the loss. The
recent loss occasioned by the big fire
amounted to $500.
The electric light company also
suffered in the loss Of wires and poles,
but it was not nearly SO serious as
the telephone company for the fact
that their poles did not carry nearly
so many wires, nor any cables.
The train service in and out Of the
city was demoralized as all of the
Telegraph wires down between
Garden City and Kinsley, which
seemed to measure the serious extent
Of the storm. The last wire went
down at IL o'clock Sunday morning
and the dispatching ceased. There
after the trains were run between
these two points on "time-card" with
80 minutes to pass, which gave very
inefficient service but the best possi-
bic under the circumstances. The
dispatchers were moved to Kinsley,
and by using the one wire that re.
mained intact to Newton, were able
to keep trains running to the east.
But the damage that is above all
most keenly felt is the loss of fine
trees about the city. A large mum
: ber Of trees in the city are hurt, many
Of them ruined. Some Of our oldest
residents who have spent twenty
years careful husbandry in beautify