Terrible Weather in California

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 108, 6 March 1890, Page 4

Terrible Weather in California

Heavy long continued rains and snow in California and on the Pacific Coast geuerally have cut off for some time all communication between the mountains and the seaboard, and blockaded trains and rail cars with heavy burdens. The trains were locked up for weeks in immense snow drifts, notwithstanding two immense snow ploughs were at work till they were disabled, and thousands of shovellers at the rate of four dollars a day. The Central Pacific route and both the Eastern aud. Oregon di* i-iuua suffered heaviest from the suow, ami the Southern Pacific from the slices and washouts. The passengers who were detained in the aiiow sheds »»t the Central route, underwent a niim -j ber of hardships from the cold and j scarcity of provi 4ons. Several sue- ! cumbed to the misery of tbe time aud died without medical assistance. Mail communication was stopped f > •• length of time between the east and various other points, and telegraphic' 1 connection was irregular. "This led to a great prostration of business in 'Frisco aud in all the principal cities t-f the coast. In the cm named the situation was still further darkened oy the fact that, out-of-door operatives such as masons, and others, were thrown off work by" the heavy and persistent rains. They consequently earned nothiug, und without actual poverty, their resources were tightly, pinched Added to the general feeling of gloom the epidemic "i ia Grippe"- had nearly everyone in the community by the throat, and iv creased the death rate aluruiiugly On Sunday, 27th January, thwre were . eight funerals, something unprecedented in the mortuary anuals of 'Frisco. The rain and snow, after falling with but slight intermission trom the latter part of November, 1889, to the 30th January lb9o, ' ceased about that date, and the clouds finally rolled away, much to the satisfaction of everybody, besides giving the doctors a test from their labors with -" La Grippe.'' Some fear is expressed that the sunshine and war mer weather will bring floods from the melting mountain snows, that will convert our valleys into lakes; but other weather' prophets, w ith more cheerful anticipations, think the surplus moisture will 'gradually find its way out by the proper channels, that our farmers will have time tv plough and get in their crops, and that after all, so far as tbe general prosperity of the .State is concerned, everything will ■ yet be serene. Of course there are many cases of individual loss and bankruptcy. In the memory of the oldest inhabitants uo such a severe reason has ever been experienced in California as the winter of 1889-90.