Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1909-12-29
BLIZZARD HITS
new ENGLAND
Great Damage Is Reported All
Along the Coast
DYKE BREAKS AT CHELSEA

DYKE BREAKS AT CHELSEA
Three Persons Drowned, Thirty One
Missing and Property Damage to
Extent of 5000, 600 as Large Area
Is Swept by FIood-Fears That
Stories Of Disasters at Sea Will
Come When Wires Get to Work
Boston, Dec. 27.-Three persons
dead, thirty-one reported missing and
$500 driven from their homes are part
of the havic wrought by broken dyke
to Chelsea and East Everett citizens
yesterday. Eighty acres were mum
dated, 100 COWS and twenty horses
were drowned, and the property loss
is estimated at $500, 900.
Flood tide, dashed by the gale and
swelled by the heavy snowfall, tore
through the dyke located at the rear
of Second street, Chelsea, in three
uluoT0uI places.
Householders in East Locust street
and Second and Third streets and in
tersecting thoroughfGres heard sound
like a thunderclap. 1t was the roar
of the water of Island End creek
leaping forward to spread death and
devastation.
Like flash the danger was real
lied. There was wild outpouring
from homes into the raging blizzard.
Some were not quick to act. These
found escape cut off by water that
seemed to fairly leap upward. Many
rushed to the roofs. Others could
get no farther than the second story,
owing to lack of openings on the roofs.
Many of the imperilled ones were
women and children. Their screams
for aid raised a din that drowned
even the bowling of the storm. Thrill
ing rescues were made by men in
boats, by several who braved the
street torrents on horseback and by
others who waded off with endangered
women and children before the water
rose so high as to make such feats
impossible.
In East Locust street, which is
hardly more than an alleyway, the
water rose to it's greatest height.
This street is in East Everett, just
over the Chelsea line, and passes from
Second street down an incline to the
edge of a small pool of water known
as the 'gas pond" This water ordi
narily is shallow. When the dyke
burst it rose twenty-five feet. Sew
eral of the houses located off East
Locust street on the edge of the pond
were entirely submerged.
Others that were built higher reared
their tops beyond the high water
mark, and this is what saved those
who had dashed upstairs when their
exit was cut off.
For short time yesterday Boston
was completely cut off from communi-
cation with the outside world. The
prostration of the wire service, es-
pecially in southeastern New England :,
was more extensive than for many
years. The telephone and telegraph
companies had few wires through to
New York by way of northern cir.
cults, and communication with the
north and east, where the snow was
dry, was in fairly good shape last
night
A mighty gale, heavy, driving snow
q 1ri1 NV, ~
awful power of the sea combined to
produce the worst storm this section
of the country has undergone since
the blizzard of 1883 and the highest
tides since 1851.
Families flooded out of their homes,
people drowned, thousands of dollars
worth OF property destroyed, suburb
an towns and cities in total darkness
flr, alarms useless, car service Grip
pied, telegraph and telephone wires
down, and fearful expectancy of
what today may bring forth from the
unknown seas, are some of the re-
| suits of the storm.
I Driven by a gale that sometimes
| reached velocity Of eighty four miles
an hour, the angry sea piled up tidal
wave that broke in dykes, tore down
! granite and cement retaining walls
From Block island to PASSPORT the
New England coast line is long line
! of storm swept shore.
The havoc of the storm stretched
from Plymouth to Portsmouth. Lights
were out in all the coast cities
/ Streets along the harbor fronts were
inundated to the depth of several feet.
Water piling in in a higher wave
that has been seen about Boston since
1851 quenched the fires in boiler
rooms, rendering electric and gas
lighting plants useless. Locomotives
ploughing through water overfowing
the railroad tracks had their fire:
put out and were dead until the tide
receded
OF the outside world little could be
learned except by rumors. One tele-