The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1910-03-02
THE AvALANCHES
WORK IS GROWING
MORE SERIOUS
Awful Results Of the Calamity
Revealed Only by the Res
cue Work
SIXTY PEOPLE BELIEVED
TO HAVE BEEN CURED ALIVE

superintendent may w Irresponsible
for Loss Of Life, a. 1t Is Said He
Refused to Run Train I'm Tunnel
Out of Danger.
Seldom in the history of transcon-
tinental railroading has the Pacific
slope been cut off from the rest of the
continent as it is today. Of the sew.
eral transcontinental lines having
terminals on this coast, only the most
southern routes are open. The Gen.
tral Pacific. Northern Pacific, Great
Northern. and other northern roads
are at a standstill so far as through
traffic is concerned, every line hav-
ing bene blocked by the floods or
snowslides. The only open route is
via Los Angeles and up coast and
even that far south one line was
totally disrupted more than a month
ago. when a hundred miles of the
Salt Lake and San Pedro route
through Nevada was washed out. The
Central Pacific is blocked in north
eastern Nevada east of Elko by the
hoods that destroyed many miles of
the roadbed. No overland trains have
arrived via Ogden ON the Pacific coast
for three days and the delayed trains
are held at the stations through
Nevada.
Everett, Wash, March 2.-As the
details of the disaster that over
whelmed two Great Northern passen-
ger trains, when an avalanche swept
the trains and portion Of the town
of Wellington, at the west portal of
the Cascade tunnel, down the noun
tain side, are received, the borrow
grows.
Twenty-three lives are known to
have been lost when the mass of
snow, loose stones and uprooted trees
hurled the cars containing seventeen
sleeping persons over the narrow
ledge of the high line down to the
bottom of the canyon 200 feet below,
and when the last reports were re-
ceived from the scene of the catastro-
phe, twenty-five more were missing.
Besides these, scores are less seri-
ously injured. The complete list of
the injured cannot be obtained until
the rescuers have dug all the bodies
out of the wreckage. The lists avail
able at the present contain only the
names of the trainmen killed and in
jured.
A partial list of the dead follow:
Trainmaster A. l.. Blackburn, Ever
ett.
A. E. Longcoy, secretary to Super
intendent O'Neil.
Louis Walker, Everett, cook on
Superintendent O'Neil's car.
The seriously injured are j. NJ.
Kurde, fireman.
Superintendent O'Neill telegraphs
that sixty lives were lost.
The two trains that were carried
away by the great wave of ice and
snow were the westbound Spokane
limited and the westbound transcon-
tinental fast mail. The latter carries
no passengers. Most of the dead and
injured are believed to have been
passengers on the Spokane express,
forty of whom were on the train at
the time of the disaster. Besides
these, thirty workmen who had been
engaged in the battle against the
drifts that had been holding the two
illfatde trains imprisoned in the
mountains since February "a were
sleeping in the day coaches.
The avalanche rolled down the
mountain at 4:2O a. nj. Two trains.
three locomotives. four powerful
electric motors. the depot and water
tank were swept off the ledge and de-
posted in twisted mass of wreck
noise from the snowslide, which was
a mile long. could be heard through
the valley and Superintendent j. H.
O'Neill. who was directing the work
of the night shift, marshaled his men
and hurried to the rescue. The
groans and cries for help coming
from the jumbled heap, of debris at
the bottom of the canyon indicated
that many imprisoned in the wreck
age were still alive and the rescuers
worked with feverish hast to release
them. AS fast as the injured were
removed they were taken to the hos
pital at Scenic, three miles away, by
a moutain trial, but ten miles when
the long winding course of the rail-
road is considered.
AS soon as word of the disaster
reached Everett last night, the Great
Northern division point 100 miles
west, rescue train with physicians
and nurses started for the scene.
This was followed by a second rescue
train carrying undertakers. wrecking
outfits and laborers. AS sections of
the track have been carried away,
farther down the mountain. the res
cuers could only get within fifteen
miles of Wellington. and had to make
the rest of the distance from Scenic.
a station 1000 fest below the tunnel.
by foot through the mountains. BY
making trail they can cut this dis
tance to three miles.
The avalanche which swept down