FROZEN IN

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 63, 8 December 1926, Page 11

FROZEN IN

NORTH AMERICA IN GRIP OF SEVERE WINTER GREAT ICE-JAM ON GREAT LAKES MANY VESSELS UNABLE TO MOVE By Telegraph.— Press association Copyright. New York, December 6. The worst early December snowstorm for forty years has blanketed the entire East, from the Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic Coast, and from Montreal to Delaware Breakwater. Twenty-five lives are already reported lost The total casualties are expected to be even higher. Shipping suffered heavilv, 140 freight steamers, manned by'2ooo seamen, being locked in the worst ice-jam in the history of the Great Lakes, at St. Mary’s River. Their stocks of food are low, and they are in serious danger of famine unless supplies can be rushed to the scene quickly. Freezing • weather, below zero in many parts of the country, added to the suffering. Twelve deaths occurred in New York City, six in Boston, three in Detroit, and two in Chicago. Forty boats are locked in the ice on the Erie Canal at Albany. Sault St. Marie (Ontario), Dec. 6. In consequence of the extreme cold a fleet of 121 vessels, carrying grain destined for the Atlantic seaboard, and freighters loader! with coal for Western Canada and United States, are frozen in along St. Mary's River. Fifteen million bushels of grain and many hundreds of thousands of tons of coal, together with ships valued at nearly 1,000,000,000 dollars, are involv- . ed. Unless relief comes quickly the fleet will be unable to move before spring. [The St. Mary’s River connects Lake Huron with Lake Superior, but is not navigable on account of rapids. The Soo Canal, with great locks, is used by an enormous volume of traffic.] TOLL OF BLIZZARD IN CANADA SEVERAL VESSELS WRECKED (Rec. December 7, 10.50 p.m.) Halifax (Nova Scotia), December 7. One death and four persons injured and half a million dollars loss of shipping, involving the wrecking of a dozen sailing craft and several steamers, while laud traffic is paralysed and telegraphic and telephone communication interrupted in the three maritime provinces of Canada from the toll taken by the blizzard which swept the Atlantic seaboard for twenty-four hours. Vancouver, December 7. It is reported from Sault Ste Marie that ten vessels imprisoned in the ice in St. Mary’s River have been liberated, but many others are still held up.