The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-07

the downpour continued in the
 : early hours of the morning and
 if is probable that all records
 . have been broken.
 ....-.-.-.-.-.-s-s-s-s"s-.-s
 The wind and rainstorm which start
 ed it's rampage Wednesday on the east
 gulf coast. continued all Wednesday
 night and yesterday. and up to late
 hour last night Railroad and wire
 communication with Pensacola were
 stopped and that with Mobile was moro
 or less irregular.
 The Louisville and Nashville was not
 operating trains on schedule south of
 Montgomery and the wires of the Vest
 ern Union were stopped below Floma- ton. The Postal Telegraph company had wires down the Mobile and Ohio lines to Waynesboro, Miss some dis tance below Meridian. but no trains could be operated over that line into Mobile All the Postal wires around Tupelo Miss were down and no tele- graphic communication was possible
 south of Jackson.
 The Alabama Great Southern and the
  trains as usual last night and yester- day and there had been no material in' terruption with their traffic. Their lines are some miles distant from the gulf
 coast and it was announced by off cials of the lines that no trouble was
 anticipated.
 The Southern Bell Telephone com pany announced last night that 1t had no lines into Mobile, Pensacola and New Orleans. The lines were in good working order to Montgomery and to Meridian, but nothing could be sent below those points. The lines had been down to all points below Montgomery and Meridian since Wednesday night
 BIRMINGHAM FEELS EFFECTS i Birmingham did not escape the effects of the gulf storm the rainfall here l being, with one exception. the heav- | fest which has ever fallen in July. Be- | tween o'clock Wednesday night and | the same hour last night. period of "A hours. there was rainfall of 367 inches. The only other time in the history of the Birmingham weather bu reau when that record was equalled was July 26. 1900. when there was rainfall of inches. With the excep- | ton of that date and yesterday never | before in the history of Birmingham | had there been a rainfall in July of | more than 3 inches.
 | Rain fell at frequent intervals 1 Wednesday night and early yesterday
 morning and practically all day yes- | terday there was a more or less steady downpour. Water was standing in ev- l cry low place in the city yesterday | and practically all the storm sewers were taxed to their capacity to carry | off the steady downpour. In some places where the land was low wa | ter was standing several feet deep and | the car tracks in some sections of the | city and district were under water. Among the railroads, the Louisville | and Nashville was the chief sufferer. | Train No. 1. which left here yesterday l morning at o'clock, was stopped at LomaX Junction, some miles above Clanton. and was delayed until early l last night. Train No. 3. which was due l in Birmingham at about noon yester- day, was delayed several hours be- | low Calera and did not reach here un- | til about o'clock in the afternoon. | All schedules on the Louisville and | Nashville below Montgomery were sub | ject to change ad delay and no att tempt was made yesterday to operate | trains regularly into Mobile and Pen | sacola.
 The Alabama Great Southern was not l hurt by the storm. according to Hugh F. Latimer district passenger agent, | last night "All of our trains are be- | ing operated on schedule time or prac- | tically so." said MT. Latimer. "Our lines are some distance from the gulf coast and therefore they have not been se- | riously interfered with. The Alabama Great Southern trains are dispa tened
 to Meridian and if there is any trouble
 below that point we have not been
 informed of it here"
 1 TELEGRAPH WIRES DAMAGED The lines of the Western Union,
 which follow the Louisville and Nash
 vile to Mobile and Pensacola. have been | badly damaged. according to a state-
 ment made last night by T. G. Woods. assistant manager here "We have no | lines to the gulf coast and we are un- | able to get messages through beyond
 Montgomery except by mail However. we have a large force of men at work
 on the lines and we are confident that we will be able to resume comm munica- l tion at the earliest possible moment. | The seriousness of the storm cannot
 be forecast until full communication l can be restored. The Western Union is making every effort to get in touch with the gulf cities and you may rest | assured that we will soon have our 1 lines back in order"
 | The Postal lines were out of com 1 mission to Mobile. according to an-
 nouncement made last night by E. E. Hydinger, assistant chief wire dis patcher. "We are still in communica-
 tion with New Orleans by way of Vicksburg, but our lines to Mobile run
 out about Waynesboro. Miss ssid Mr.
 Hydinger. "We have not had line to | Mobile since Wednesday night and the 1 last message we had stated that the
 wind was blowing there about 80 miles an hour. Neither have we any wires | to Pensacola We received information | today that the wireless at New Or i leans has been put out of business. | The Louisville and Nashville train No. | 10. which left New Orleans at 5;15 this | afternoon. was the first train today out | of New Orleans. While we have re- l ceived no reports of any lives being | lost. it would seem that there must | have been rather severe property dam 1 age, as the damage to the wires of all the companies and the damage to rail-
 road lines have been excessively l great.
 Railroad and telegraph officials re- ported last night that all the emer-
 geucy crews were at work on the dam-