The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1910-01-07
TELEPHONE WIRES
DOWN, TRAINS LATE,
RESULT OF STORM
WIED AND sLEEr CUT LINES OF
COMMUNICATION AND DE-
LAY TRAFFIC.
MERCURY TAKES Big TUMBLE
Freeze Follows Rain And Wind And
Plays Havoc With Poles And Lines.
Navigation Difficult And Dangerous
And Business is Almost Suspended.


Telephone wi~og down all over tn,
} county, long distance lines WORKING
with much difficulty. two of the wires
Of the light company down as the re
suit of a fallen tree, all South-bounC
trains from two TO five hours late
navigation for man or beast difficult
and very dangerous, the court house
clock frozen up;-this is brief is a
summary of the damage wrought in
this section by the worst snow and
sleet storm of the winter and one OF
the severest ever experienced in Mau
ry county.
Following a heavy rain of nearly
twelve hours duration lasting from
noon yesterday to after midnight the
mercury took a tumble of something
like twenty degrees and people awoke
this morning to find everything in
cased in a solid ice coating. A desul-
tory sort of snow had fallen which
added to the grandeur of the scene,
but made walking less pleasure and
| more of task. During the early
morning hours the concrete pavements
of the city were practically abandoned,
people finding the center of the street
much safer footing.
Both of the telephone companies
suffered from fallen wires. There
were few lines ia the city out OF com
mission, but in parts of the county
the weather wrought sad havoc, in
places every wire being broken. A
high wind prevailed during the early
part of the night and several trees
were reported blown across the lines
in different sections of the county. In
the majority of. cases. however, the
wires broke from the strain of the
sleet and ice that they could not hold
up.
There are sections of the county
that are almost entirely cut off from
communication with Columbia. This
is notably true in the Glendale com
munity, where on some of the lines
every wire was broken Hardly dis
trict failed to report damage to both
the Citizens and the Cumberland com
panies. The telegraph company Jared
better, although some of the railroad
wires of the Western Union were
working with difficulty, but the office
here was never out of communication
with Nashville and all points East
The light and power company re-
ported very little damage. In one
place a falling tree broke some of the |
wires and in other instances it was |
necessary to cut off the power where |
the lines of the telephone companies
had fallen across the wires. Unless |
other wires should fall on the light
wires, making it necessary to cut out
The current in order to prevent burn
ing out the boxes of the telephone
NnCiC Will OC bO /
ence with the lights tonight
Unless we have trouble that we
ire not now looking for, there will be
lights as usual tonight, said General
Manager Dobbins of the Columbia
Water & Light Company, this morn
ng. I'VE have suffered very little
rom the storm, practically none at
III except where the wires of the tele-
hone companies have fallen across
'ur lines. Repairs are being made as
apidly as possible and unless some
hing entirely unforeseen should occur
he people will not experience any in
Very few people came to the city
oday. There was less business than
sual Probably not in year have
0 few people been on the streets as
here were today. No accidents have
cen reported of consequence, al
hough many citizens experienced
Ills on the ice that were not calcu.
tied to cause them to envy Peary's
roposed trip to the South Pole.
All South-bound passenger trains
re running from three to five hours
tie Passenger train number one,
he to arrive in Columbia at 3:42, c
ulled in at 7:25. nearly four hours
tie The train was one solid sheet
ice and resembled an immense ice
arg rolling through space. South
Dund train number three, due to ar
We at 9:45, pulled in few minutes
sfore one and was in the same condi- a,
on OF number one. In,
Both trains are carrying heavy =,
ads, pulling from ten to eleven cars h,
eavily passengered, which added to m
e weather conditions makes II al N
ost impossible to make up any sort a,
schedule time. w
lT