Evening star., 1924-12-20
SUBzERO WEATHER
CREEPING EAST AS
DEATH TOLL RISES
Freezing and Fire Tragedies
Mount in Middle West-Pa-
CifiC Sections Warmer.
PRESS TURNS TO RADIO
FOR NEWS AS WIRES FAIL
Temperature Drops 80 Degrees to
5 Below in Chicago-Many
Trains Isolated in Storm.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
CHICAGO, December 20.-The icy
grip Of Winter was slowly relaxing
in the Far West and Rocky Noun
tain region today, while it frightened
in the Middle West and began to en-
ve1op the East.
Although nearly normal tempera-
lures may be reached in most of the
cold-wave area within "A hours, days
will elapse before wire and rail COM
munication, virtually paralyzed in
some sections, resume usual opera
tions.
Meanwhile the toll of lives contin-
ued to mount as deaths from freez-
ing were added to by fatalities in
fires resulting from overheating.
Fire departments in middle western
cities answered hundreds of calls.
Considerable suffering was felt
among the poor, but relief organiza-
tions were not reported overtaxed by
demands
Many Deaths Reported.
Warm winds were forecast to bring
relief to the Pacific Coast today, after
siege Of subzero temperatures in the
north and heavy frosts in California,
that necessitated smudSe pots in the
citrus area and nipped orange shoots
in Valencia. Rising mercury and fair
skies were reported in Montana and
Colorado, the last OF the Rocky Noun
tain States to feel relief after five
days of bitter cold. A man and
woman were frozen to death in the
Butte district. Three members of a
family OF four were burned to death
at Casper, Wyo., when an explosion
was caused by lowered gas pressure
that put out fires in their homes. The
fourth, a four-year-old boy, was ex
pected to die.
Eight deaths were reported in Mis-
souri,. Kansas and Oklahoma, where
thousands of dollars of property dam
age was done. One man was frozen
to death and another died from in
! iuries received in fall on the ice in
+ Chicago.
/ department answered more than
| hundred calls.
Five Below in Chicago.
More than 80 degrees drop to . be-
low zero was recorded in Chicago in
"a hours -
Trains in the Middle West were run
ming from several hours 10 more than
"a hours late, and two passenger trains
which left st. Louis Thursday were
lost somewhere in. Southern Missouri
! early today. Train crews frequently
were forced to remove trees and poles
felled across >efacks by their burdens
of ice
| Member newspapers of the Associated
Press cut off from the outside world
f! by y~paralyZed wire communication,
were kept in touch with the outside
world by radio. Dispatches brought
-1nto Chicago by wire were ra0iocast
/ by the Associated Press from station
| WMAQ of the Chicago Daily News.
| The jefferson City bureau Of the
Associated Press. cut off by wire for
| two days, transmitted dispatches by
radio from station WOS, at the State
/ capital, to WDAF, Kansas City Star
! station. The Kansas City and ST.
| Louis bureaus of the Associated Press
/ also communicated by radio
! Springfield and Jacksonville and
other southern Illinois points were forced
! to rely on radio dispatches for outside
/ communication.
Wire facilities of the Associated
! Press to the southeast and southwest
! from Chicago were badly crippled and
much rerouting of lines was necessary
| to bring in news from these sections.
J