NEW YORK BLIZZARD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 259, 31 March 1914, Page 6

NEW YORK BLIZZARD.

WORST FOR 25 YEARS. LINERS ENCOUNTER. TERRIFIC GALES. New York, March 15. One of the worst blizzards recorded for the last twenty-five years, swept the Atlantic coast yesterday, and the streets of New York were buried in ten inches of snow, while country districts reported from IS to 24 inches. Traffic was completely paralysed, and until late this morning the city of New York was threatened with famine, for no freight trains with foodstuffs were able to enter the city. Passenger trains in all parts of the State sire snowbound, and some that arrived this morning, were as much a» eight and twelve hours late. Sixteen thousand unemployed were set to work clearing the streets of New York, but had it not been for a cessation of the snowfall late yesterday afternoon they could have made but little headway For hours a north-east gale, with blinding sleet swept over the city, and traffic had to be suspended entirely while terrible suffering was experienced in the poor quarters.

EIGHTEEN VICTIMS OF COLD. Seabright, New Jersey, a popular seaside resort, was devastated for the third time within two mouths, and all along the coast disasters to coastwise vessels arc reported. Jinny smiill craft have been swamped, and others driven ashore, and at least a dozen lives have been lost in this way. Deaths from exposure in NeWj York now total eighteen, and the condition of the poor is causing great anxiety to the authorities and charitable organisations. ' All incoming liners report encountering fearful weather, and the Oceanic, which arrived over fifty hours late, came in like a phantom ship, covered with iec and snow.

WAVE SWEEPS THE OCEANIC. Captain, Smith declares that the voyage was the worst lie has ever experienced, and a couple of (lays before reaching port the Oceanic was swept by an enormous wave, which, seemed as if it would turn the liner completely over. The wave smashed the steel shutter guarding the port holes, and nearly carried several passengers overboard; while a passenger sleeping in his bunk was injured by a piece of glass from one of the broken portholes. So fierce was the gale that Captain Smith had to reduce speed to eight, and even five knots, and lie did not leave the bridge for the last 315 hours of the journey. The bridge carried two feet of frozen snow when the Oceanic reached port. Many other vessels are overdue, and the Prinzessin Irene and other outwardbound liners were unable to leave until long after their scheduled time.