Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1918 — SNOW AND ICE COVERS NATION [ARTICLE]

SNOW AND ICE COVERS NATION

Traffic 'Delayed and Many CommunL cation Lines Down. One of the worst storms we have had tfer many years came Saturday night and Sunday. It started here with snow, turning to rain or sleet during the early hours Sunday morning, and ice from one-fourth to one-half inch thick covered everything by eight o’clock Sunday (morning. Limbs of trees were broken down in many places as were telephone and telegragh lines in all sections of the country. The storm started in the southwest Friday night and moved rapidly northeastward. Driven by a thirty-five mile an hour gale snow began falling in Chicago Saturday night and continued a part of Sunday. In many places in the city the snow was drifted six to seven feet deep and traffic was almost completely paralyzed. Scores of railroad trains were blockaded and only the elevated car lines were able to run on regular schedules. In this section of Indiana we got more snow preceding the sleet Saturday night and again Sunday afternoon and night, perhaps four or five inches in all, and it drifted quite badly in places, impeding traffic on the rural routes and country roads in general. Trains were many hours' late on the Monon Sunday night and some trains were not run at all Monday. The Chicago train due here at 1:45 a. m. Monday did not reach * Rensselaer until after the noon hour.

nearly twelve hours late. Both the Louisville train and the milk train went north Monday morning but no train came through from Indianapolis until some time in the night. The train schedule had been practically re-established yesterday but they were all running a liftle late. Yesterday was quite pleasant except that the temperature' remained near the zero mark——it reached five below Monday night—-and the trees were still covered with ice. The damage to the country telephone lines will be considerable, although it is generally the wires that are down rather than both wires and poles, as frequently happens.