Arizona republican., 1911-06-12
1t Was Aimed Directly Al
OPangeWOod Power House
ENGINEERS CLOSE CALL
New Plant Will Be Con-
structed in the Open and
House Built Around It
Traffic on Road Will Be
Resumed Tuesday.

The later details of the destruction
of the power house at Orangewood, by
Saturday nights wind, as recited in
yesterday mornings paper. show the
wind TO have been a veritable cyclone
on the small scale. Its freakish con-
duct was in harmony with that Of the
representative cyclone. which means
that il was not in harmony with any
thing one might expect. One expects
even cyclone to at least shoot along
i'm general direction and clean mp
things in its path, however eTratic its
cleaning methods may be. but in this
case it seemed to merely sweep down
and swat that power house, then Quit.
just like a marksman hits the bulls
eye
So far as has been learned there was
no serious damage done anywhere else,
nor did the wind seem to have any
great strength even few feet away
from the power house. which was
brick structure 22x3O feet in size. Claud
LaShbrOOk, the engineer in charge.
escaped almost miraculOuSly. He
stepped out through the door Of the
building only an iHst.snt before the
wind struck il. 81 close was his
schedule that me wind tore the door
off and flung i al him. scratching him
en- the leg slignuy, though where he
stood the wind vas rot strong enough
TO suck him into the swirling vortex,
or even throw him down. Under the
circumstances he would have been
justified in getting killed.
big section of the iron room of the
hrrf1 +asr
was sucked up so high it Travelled about
POO feet before it drifted back to earth
again and landed as gently as a para
chute. with hardly a dent in it. The
building Itself was literally torn brick
from brick The switch board is prob
ably ruined and was found under pile
OF scattered brick IL is believed the
motor generator. however. is not ma
terially hurt. or at least can be re-
paired and put in commission again.
Manager Mitchell lost no time in
formulating his temporary plans and
announces that he hopes to have the
railroad i'm commission again by Tues
day noon but the power house, like the
Arizona bed room. will be as big as all
out doors. He will re-erect the neces-
sary machinery on the site Of the form
er plant and as soon as he can he will
build a new power house around it. BY
midnight of Saturday he had arranged
TO secure the help of the construction
men Of the Pacific Gas & Electric COM
pany. and they with his own men, will
| make a force large enough 70 do all
that can be done. A temporary switch
board will be fixed up and the motor
generator will be dug out and repaired.
the wires connected and the Juice
turned on just as soon as possible
In the meantime those who really
want to go to Glendale will have to
walk, unless they have automobiles or
can overcome their bride sufficiently
To get in behind old Dobbin. who used
to serve them pretty well in his day.
Mr. Mitchell will do his best to make
the delay as short as possible. He has
| figured on a great many obstacles in
his mana agement of the railroad sys-
/ TEN. but this one caught him squarely
| between the eyes. About the last thing
! that anybody could think of is the aim
| ing of a sharp pointed cyclone right
| straight at a little brick house in the
middle of a desert patch in the Salt
| river valley on bright sunshin.- even
| ing. and hitting the mark in a dead
center. without frazzling up the scenery
! round about.