Omaha daily bee., 1910-03-05
HUNDRED PERSONSARE DEAD
This is Conservative Estimate Of
Number of Victims of Snowslide.
FEW BODIES ARE RECOVERED
Snow is Packed Tight and Trees and
BOulders Were Carried Down
with tt-Pnckers Carry
in Food.
BODIES ARE RECOVERED

WELLINGTON, Wash, March A.
Eighty-six names are now on the list of
dead and missing passengers, trainmen and
postal employees, who were carried down
by the avalanche that destroyed two Great
Northern trains Tuesday morning. State
ments of the number Of laborers fighting
the snow who were sleeping on the trains
vary from twenty to thirty. An estimate
of 100 dead is conservative.
Most of the dead lived in the north
west. Bert Matthews Of Cincinnati; r. w.
Topping of Ashland, o., and &c. Boles Of
Maberly, Ont, persisted in the disaster.
OF the injured only one, the Rev.
Bishop winget Of Chicago, was from the
east. No one who has seen the wreckage
has the slightest hope of finding any of
the missing alive. The explorations have
uncovered none living, and some OF the
bodies are shockingly mangled. An avail
anche Of dry snow might nave covered
it's victims alive, but the gorge at Well
ington is packed tight with wet snow, ice,
huge trees and glacial boulders OF enor-
nous weight. Two of the bodies recovered
were those of the electricians. who were
living in a cabin at the edge of Well
lngton and who were carried 300 feet down
the slope.
Packers Carry in Food.
All day, a stream Of men, packs STRAPPED
to their backs, wound about the mountain
path from Skykomlsh to Scenic and Well
ington, carrying food and supplies for the
injured. Some are digging for the bodies
Of friends or relatives. A few were sight
seers and they were told they were not
wanted. A laborer was caught taking
trinkets from a dead woman's body and he
was compelled to start down the trail at
once.
One hundred and fifty men dug for
bodies in the debris. Among the bodies
found today were those OF former Prose
cutting Attorney B. M. Barnhart Of spo-
kane; Conductor ]. L. Petit, who, after
a trip on foot to Skykomish, went back
to his post, and Mrs. M. A. Covington
Of Olympia, who left Spokane to celebrate
her golden wedding anniversary in Seat
tie today.
II the searchers locate the Pullman can,
intact they may take out many bodies in
a short time, but It is likely that the dead
arc strewn through acres Of debris. At the
present rate OF progress it will take weeks
to recover all the bodies. After the track
Is opened. engines and tackle will lift the
huge trees and boulders. There are no cof-
fins at Wellington, and the dead. wrapped
in blankets on the snow, are we'll pre-
served.
Snow plows and wrecklng trains working
east from Skykomish made good progress
today. Superintendent O'Neill OF the Great
Northern said tonight he expected the road
to be In operation about April 1.
The Great Northern's costly experience
with snow in the Cascades has caused re-
newal OF the project TO build a tunnel at a
level 1000 feet lower than the present open-
ing, with its west portal at Scenic Hot
Springs. The proposed tunnel was surveyed
years ago by European engineers and pro-
nounced feasible.
BIOOdstaIns I'm MeItinE snow,
Workers searching for bodies frequently
find victims by following blood stains
through the snow. The melting snow has
carried the stains down to the stream al
the bottom Of the gulch. Men with shovels
finding one OF these crimson leads
start at the edge OF the stream and tunnel
through the snow until they come 10 the
body OF q victim. The snow is packed like
cement and the bodies thai were man
gled By tho wreckage Of the cars, were
crushed by the weight OF the icy mass.
Il Is feared that many OF the bodies will
never be recovered. The warm weather and
rains OF the last three days have turned
the little stream that flows through the
canyon into a torrent and the water Is fast
undermining the snow that was carried far
out across the bottom Of the gorge. II is
believed that many bodies were carried
clear across the gulch and buried under
forty feet OF snow, As the stream rises and
the water undsrmines the dsbris there IL