The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1917-12-09
RAIN SAVES NY.
MANY AD0LLAR
Quickly Removes Snow Which
Threatened to Impede
Traffic.
HEAVY FALL IN WEST
Mercury Drops to 20 Below in
Minnesota and Other
States.

Real winter descended upon New York
yesterday-not with intense cold. but
with q driving snowstorm, which COW
cred the entire city in . mantle OF white
until dark. when a heavy rain trans
formed the beauty OF the snow banks
into mud and slush to depth Of several
inches and caught the thousands Of eve
ming rush hour pedestrians in 4 most
disagreeable mess.
The rainfall. coming when 1t did. un-
doubtedly saved the city thousands Of
dollars. 1t quickly removed the snow
which UP to that time had threatened to
Impede traffic. and which. with the
present shortage of labor. would have
caused much trouble.
As to Just where the storm came from
there Is a wide difference Of opinion
among the ordinary citizens and the
amateur weather prophets, but that II
was a record breaker for December and
general over the Northeastern States all
agreed. And with It came the usual
reports Of delayed trains and interrupted
wire communication, but as far as could
be learned up TO a late hour last night
| no serious trouble had occurred on land.
Shipping bore the brunt Of the blizzard.
Little Delay ia City Tramc.
While the snow, which began falling
about 10 o'clock after an early morning
| OF overcast skies. covered the streets of
Greater New York TO q depth Of several
inches and piled up drifts three or four
feet deep against buildings. keeping the
| army Of shovelmen busy, there was very
little serious delay in traffic in the city.
! Some OF the surface cars were put a few
minutes OF schedule for q time. but the
trouble was soon remedied.
This was not true Of the suburban
and through traffic from the Wesi. Hud-
son Tube trains were thirty minutes late
In some instances. and practically every
other suburban line suffered more or less
trouble. by o'clock last night the
terminal officials Of the variobs lines de.
ciared that nj, trains were at that time
running on schedule and no further In.
reference with traffic was anticipate ed
the rain having solved the difficulty.
The New York Central announced tina,
all its night trains would arrive on time
but the Pennsylvania road officials ad
mtted they were not so fortunate
| practically all our trains from the
West are late" was the announcement
"Some will be an hour and others two
hours or more behind time. but there is
no serious trouble"
Telegraphic reports from Connecticut
Ohio, Indiana. Kentucky and as fal
south as Tennessee described the storm
as being the most severe in many years
X not the worst snowstorm for Decem
Der in the history Of these States.
Camp Mills IL HIT.
| At Camp Mills. according to report:
from there, the blizzard caught the thou
4 sands Of soldiers unprcpared when Il
came bowling through the tented city
and an immediate charge was made or
the great piles Of cordwood that had
been cut and laid away. A new world.
wood chopping record was made, and b,
dark more than 200 cords Of wood had
the thousands Of tents.
While the tent stoves kept the boy
warm. many OF the soldiers had grea
difficulty In keeping their tents on th'
ground until the gale subsided. tn,
thermometer varied between 26 and 81
degrees above zero throughout the day
and many a man who had. never befor,
looked a woodpile In the face grabbed
an axe and went to work like a veteran
All the hospital tents stood UP we'll un
der the storm and none OF the patients
suffered any i'll effects.
Came Up From Tennessee.
| The official weather man. who is al
ways accused OF not knowing what III
is talking about. but who is AWAY.
listened to nevertheless. explained 1t al
last night in this way:
| First, I want to correct what seem,
| to be a general impression this blizzart
was a tail end Of the storm that ha!
been raging In Halifax for two days.
ut was not. 1t was first reported
| from central Tennessee this morning a
s o'clock and gradually moved north
east, reaching New York city about II
o'clock. Along the west coast from fou
to ave inches Of snow fell. Up-stat,
the snow was heavier than in this city
the record being from eight to tel
inches at certain points. The precipita
| tion In New York was 1.i1 inches, which
means the melted snow and the rain IL
the gauge read that.
| eat 10 o'clock tonight the blizzard 1!
central in northeastern Pennsylvania
with every indication 1t has spent it
force - far as this section Of the coun
try is concerned. Sunday will be fail
and colder.
"The greatest wind velocity in New
York was IS miles. but at Long Brancl
! the gale recorded ~ high as 81 milel
for q short time during the afternoon
| Heavy Saowfall In Indiana.
EVANSVILLE, Ind. Dec. S.-S0utheri
| Indiana and Northern Kentucky are to
day experiencing the greatest snowstorn
since weather records have been kept fo
this part OF the country. More thar
twelve inches OF snow fell before nool
and this afternoon It was still falling
Tranic Of all kinds 10 delayed. Fac
I tories had 10 shut down or operate short
handed because employees could not 60
70 work.
70 Below In Northwest.
CuIcASo-wintsr settled down to tht
| actual business In hand to-day over n
the Northwest Preliminary symptoms
yestsrday were unmistaksbls and thu
wsathsrwiss began digging In when they
| read ef snow - Tar south ~ Oklahoma
- tspDsrasusss G Assfsss below SER