Putnam patriot., 1914-03-06
STORM DAMAGE
BREAKS RECORD
Railroads and Wire Lines Never
Before So Badly Crippled
16 BLIZZARD TRAGEDIES
Record Storm Driven Seaward--FIre
and Disease Feared in lee-choked
Streets-Seven Hundred Fire
men on Guard.

New York-The worst blizzard
along the Atlantic Coast il twenty-six
spent itself, after thirty-six hours of
fury, leaving in its trail death, suf-
ferlng and a loss of millions.
Packed in a foot of ice and snow,
New York City was almost isolated
from the world. Wires are down to
the West and South and only few
trains nosed through the drifts.
Fear of a milk famine was averted
when trains bearing one-ffth of the
snow banks into the city. twenty-four
hours late.
Pestilence and fire threaten the city
because of the heaps of garbage lying
in the streets and the damage to so
per cent of the fire alarm system in
Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Seven hundred firemen are patrol
ling the streets, and all leaves OF
absence in the department have been
revoked
Sixteen are dead in New York City
and vicinity since the blizzard began,
and scores have been injured. Sui
fering among the poor has increased
terribly.
Meagre reports coming from other
hard hit cities tell of five dead In
Philadelphia and two in Cincinnati
Every big railroad system entering
New York went out of business for
a day, except the New Haven, which
ran all its trains, though greatly be-
hind schedule.
Thousands of unemployed can have
work removing snow, but they will not
apply. Accepting the dare of the /.
w. w. agitatOrs, dozens of ministers
ofIered to house the homeless. Moth
ing for l. W. w. oratory, but 20 cents
an hour for shovelling," is the slogan
of the Street Cleaning Commissioner.
Men who went through the blizzard
of 1883 said that the effects Of the lat
est storm were more disastrous be
cause the city had grown so greatly
in twenty-six years. There were more
things for a blizzard to hurt.
Funerals and burials were suspend
ed For the first time in years there
were no plotOooioho oi eiS
road to the cemeteries in Queens.
OF the 10000 commuters on Staten
Island only 5000 were able to get tc
New York
The public schools in the five Dor
oughs were all open, despite the
storm, but they were sadly lacking
in pupils. In the outlying districts
where all traffic was at standstill
whole classes were missing and, in {
few cases the teachers and janitor!
were the only ones in the buildings
Nothing approaching the damage tt
telegraph and telephone service wa
ever known.
Miles of telegraph and telephon
wires were useless, having broken o
sagged under the weight OF snow an(
ice.
Such a storm shifting New Yorl
caused more damage to business THAI
will ever be estimated. More thai
100000 commuters couldn't get to of
flee or shop. Customers stayed a
home. Deliveries of coal were almos
impossible in most districts of tn,
city.
Railroad service was never so com
pletely demoralized in the memory o
operating officials. Not even the biz
card of 1888 pinched so fiercely.
There was no such thing on most o
the lines as through train service. Al
occasional through train, like thu
Twentieth Century Limited on tn,
New York Central and the Congress
sional Limited on the Pennsylvania
managed to creep in, but the former
was six hours late and the latter IS
The crack flyers, not daring 10 move
along tracks strewn with the debris Of
the storm, or because telegraph wire!
were down and they could get no or
deis, stopped at the most convenient
stations.