Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1918-01-07
BLIZZARD IN
THE MIDDLE
WEST TIES
Up TRAFFIC.
Heavy Snowfall and Wind
Combine to Stop Business
Over Illinois, Wisconsin,
Michigan and Indiana.
Entire Service Cancelled by
Some of the Roads Enter
ing Chicago and All Are
Crippled Many Cities Cut
Off From Outside World.

Chicago, Jan. THE middle west
was a great, white desert today.
The heaviest snowfall on record was
whirled by a mile minute gale into
huge drifts IL and Is feet deep, para
lying all traffic and forcing business
throughout this region practically to
y standstill.
More than one-third of a seasons
snow had fallen in "a hours. The
weather bureau reported a fall Of 1872
inches on the level early today. on top
pf Az inches previously fallen. This
was nearly half the entire snowfall of
as15.
The snow ceased here during the
forenoon and the sun began shining
brightly.
The storm was centered over the
lower Mississippi valley Saturday
night, had moved northeastward and
today extended from Missouri east
ward into Ohio. The heaviest precipi-
tation was in Illinois, Wisconsin, Mich
igan and northern Indiana. The
weather bureau expected the wind and
snow to abate in this territory some
lime today.
LITTLE TRAIN SERVICE.
More than half the transcontinental
railroads entering Chicago were forced
to cancel from one train to their en-
tire service Suburban service was
practically abandoned. But few sur
face cars attempted to buck the drifts.
Taxi companies refused to send out
their cars. Scores of privately owned
automobiles and motor trucks were
abandoned in the streets. Only the
elevated railways maintained SEM
blance of a schedule. Even pedes-
TRANS were exhausted by the struggle
against the snow and wind.
The Chicago & Alton railroad aban-
doned all train service out Of the city.
The Chicago & Northwestern was
making no attempt to operate accord
Ing to schedule and all through trains
via Minneapolis were abandoned. All
inbound trains on the Pennsylvania
were five to 10 hours late. All north
bound trains on the Chicago, Milwau-
kee & st. Paul were temporarily sus-
pended, Rock Island trains left one
to three hours behind schedule. Trains
on the New York Central and Michi-
gan Central were six to 10 hours late
and many were cancelled. The Hi
nois Central was operating service as
we can"
MANY CITIES ISOLATED.
Telephone and telegraph service was
badly crippled and many cities were
entirely isolated. A milk and fuel
shortage was imminent in Chicago and
surrounding cities. The only cheer
ting feature of the situation was COM
paratively high temperatures, but with
the abatement of the wind and snow
the mercury was expected to drop to
about IL above zero.
Last night was '1ightless night" In
Chicago and the storm put thousands
of street lights out of commission
making the lack of illumination great
er than was intended. Holdup men
took advantage of the situation, scores
OF robberies being reported.
Two persons were dead in this city
and nine seriously injured as a result
Of the storm. Fffty-seven fire alarms
were turned in, but none of them
proved serious, despite the fact sew
eral pieces of apparatus were stalled
LAKE TRAFFIC IN DANGER.
Lake traffic was in great danger
The steamers Missouri and Indiana
caught in the ice off Chicago harbor
for hours, made port early today. The
steamer Illinois was still trapped In
the floes. Other vessels were unre-
ported.
The city abandoned attempts tc
clear the downtown streets early last
night after men and horses had be-
come exhausted. An appeal was made
to citizens to help today. Many
schools which were tore open after the
Christmas holidays will remain closed