Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-31
ZERO WEATHER
AvERTS FLOOD
OHIO RIVER is FROZEN AND
DELUGE PREVENTED
SOUTH AND EAST IN GRIP OF ICE
AND SNOW
Entire Situation in Many Cities Now
Hinges on the Temperature.
Warmth Means Dlsas-
trous lnundation
Associated Presgl


PITTSBURG, Dec. S0.-The coming
of zero weather in Pittsburg and west
ern Pennsylvania points has TEN
porarily postponed here and at West
Virginia and Ohio places, bordering the
Ohio river, a destructive flood.
For a score of years conditions nave
not been so favorable for q rampage OF
the waters, Notwithstanding that within
the last few years many lives have
been lost and millions Of dollars worth
of property destroyed by high water.
The Ohio river is frozen from TINS
city to Cincinnati. Tributaries are in
a similar state. Above here the AL
legheny, Monongahela, Youghiogheny
and other rivers, together with count
less tributaries, are frozen, while the
Christmas blizzard deposited from ten
to fifteen inches of snow over the river
territory.
The entire situation now hinges, for
good or for bad, on the weather Warm
weather and rain would mean dis
astrous flood, warm weather alone a
serious flood, while should conditions
moderate gradually little damage viii
result.
Warmth Feared
The indications are that warm
weather is headed this way.
south today. not even the orange belt
of Florida being exempted from the
freezing temperature. This morning
the mercury ranged from 2 degrees
above zero at Asheville, N. c., to 81
degrees at Eel Paso, with 20 above
registered at Jacksonville and 2S al
Tampa, Fla.
This, according to the local weather
bureau, was the coldest day Of the
coldest December the south has ever
known.
1t is believed that no serious damage
has been done to the Florida orange
crops.
With the thermometer registering
zero and in some places from three to
seven degrees below, Western Pennsyl-
vania tonight is in the grip of a Bit
terly cold blizzard, accompanied by
snow fiurries and high winds.
From the outlying and mountain dis
tricts reports of deaths due to ex-
posure are coming in. In Greater Pitts
burg several deaths have been re-
ported.
Coolest In Years
At Irwin, Pa, the temperature regis
tered was the coldest December 80 in
ten years, the thermometer dropping
to two degrees below zero.
All trains from the east are from one
to three houra>late. Mails are tied up.
Gas shortage is reported everywhere,
several mills of the Jones-Laughiin
steel plant closing down on account of
the shortage and throwing 500 men out
of employment.
Five mines operated by the Peoples
Coal company have closed on account
OF lack of supplies, which are trans
ported to the mines via packets A
thousand men are thrown out of en-
ployment.
River navigation will be suspended
for weeks. Loss to shippers and packet
line operators will total nearly $500, 900.
The intensely cold weather tonight
effectively checked the flood that yes
terday menaced Pittsburg and points
south of here on the Ohio river. From
reports received along the Ohio river
the river is frozen solidly for its entire
length between here and Cincinnati.
The fear that warm weather might
break the ice gorges in the river and
let loose vast quantities of water with
rush is past.