Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1922-02-04
Entire East Blizzard Struck. Worst
Storm In Fifty Years 1t Is Claim
ed. Traffic AT Stand Still.
ALL MAILS HELD UP AND
SHIPPING MUCH DELAYED

A record snow and wind
storm struck this section on Friday of
last week and continued all day Sat
urday and we'll into Sunday. Busi-
ness was completely paralyzed, rail-
road trains were put out of commits
sion for several hours and the move
ment of boats on the Chesapeake
Bay was at a standstill. According
to the Weather Bureau it was the
worst storm that has occurred for
fifty years. The reports from various
parts of the State were to the effect
that the snow reached depths ranging
from one foot to two feet. In this
immediate section rain was eXper-
fenced between the snow falls and
the depths here was not as great as
at the ether sections but the fall was
heavier than we have had for many
wears. 1t showed continuously for
"a hours and but for the moderated
temperature Saturday morning the
snow would have been considerably
over foot deep.
Saturday vas blank day from a
business standpoint ir Pocomoke
City. The stores did very little busi-
ness and but few of them kept their
doors open after nightfall. All of
the trains on the N. Y. P. & N. rail
road ran from two to six hours late
and the mail service was necessarily
poor.
The storm was by no means local
in character. 1t struck the entir"
East and especially did it play havcc
in all sections of Maryland.
Hundreds of Baltimoreans slept
in places they had never dreamed
they would STAY when they left home
in the morning.
Every downtown hotel was filled
Many clubs were filled. Benches in
the railroad stations were filled
Street cars, stalled, for hours on tbs
rails, still sheltered the passenger:
who had been caught home-boune
and had no chance of getting home.
Every taxicab which could buck
its way through the drifts was ir
service. The companies at one time
simply disconnected their telephones
and made no effort to answer the un
prccedented number of calls which
poured in from every section of the
city. Downtown telephone booth:
were piled with stranded people try
ing to talk with home. Folks &
hcme were at their telephones strivv
ing to locate missing members of TIM
family.
In the snow-filled streets were
thousands of pedestrians stumbling
homcward over trolley tracks Ions
untouched by cars.
This was Baltimore's part in th'
worst snow storm which has swep
this southeastern coastsince the dis
astrous blizzard of 1899. For a "a
hour storm there was heavier fall
than at any other time in the histol?
of the weather service.
Washington was the center, will
30 inches of snow. From there fal
into the Carolinas and far northwarC
along the coast the blanket Wa
spread at decreasing depths.
This storm came up from TIN
"sunny South, just as the blizzar'
in 1889 did. Somewhere it got miXe'
up with a northeast wind, blowing
along at 20 miles an hour in the cit,
and 81 miles an hour along parts o
the Atlantic Coast.
1t was the wind that brough
grief to the bay sailors. 1t picked "
the ice foes on the Eastern Shore ant
swept them over to what mariner
call "Noreas Bar" and there
dumped them, turning the bay int
an icefeld from Sandy Point up.
Fortunately for this section tn
weather remained warm and the snoy
melted much each day. On Monda,
and Tuesday Chief of Police W. A
Stroud, with force of men, did ef
fective work in clearing away muc
of the snow in the business section o
the city. A Fordson Tractor an
snow plow were used to clear tn
cutters so as To give the meltin
snow a good drainage.