WORST STORM OF WINTER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 123, 9 March 1950, Page 5

WORST STORM OF WINTER

TRAIL OF DAMAGE STOCK LOSSES HEAVY ‘N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) (Rec. 10.45 a.m.) CHICAGO, Mar. 8. Winter’s worst storm flung a mighty blizzard across the mid- , West to-day, and raised the greatest duststorm since the 1930’5. From the Canadian border south almost to the Rio Grande high Avinds, with gusts to 100 miles an hour, lashed cities and farms. While a snowstorm hurled the Mississippi River and plunged east, leaving the. Dakotas, Nebraska, lowa, and Minnesota staggering, a towering duststorm ranged east across Texas and Oklahoma. It fanned prairie fires and caused damage estimated in hundreds of thousands of dollars in the parched Texas Panhandle.

A newspaper editor said: "This might be the worst storm ever to strike the Texas north plains.” The blizzard struck lowa with such fury that even snowploughs Avere taken off kighAvays. Telephone Sine damage in Nebraska was greater than during the record blizzard of 1949. The Dakotas are virtually isolated from the rest of the world. The storm struck so rapidly that many farmers had little opportunity to care for their livestock, and losses are expected to be high. Temperatures ranged beloAv zero in North Dakota and near zero as far south as Missouri. In the southern plains winds up to 50 miles an hour swept up dry powdery soil and sent it blowing in yeIIOAV clouds three miles into the sky.