THE SNOW STORM IN EUROPE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11581, 12 May 1903, Page 5

THE SNOW STORM IN EUROPE.

PARTICULARS OF THE DISASTER.

[Bt Teumrajh.]

(Per s.i. Sierra at Auckland.)

BERLIN, April 20,

A thirty-eix hours' snowstorm over the middle of Europe ceased to-di\y at daylight. The snow is two inches deep in Berlin, aird ie hard and deep. In Eaet Prussia and Poland the -wires are down, and the trains are delayed. The temperature in most parts of Germany is barely α-t- freezing point, so that the damage to the fruit crops may not be so serious as at first supposed. The snow is melting rapidly, and streams are already flooding. Tho Government has issued notices that telegraphic communication is interrupted, and the lines communicating with Pomerania, Si'esia, and eastward of Berlin, are also down. The snow lies from, eighteen indies to three feet deep on the Polish plaine. At noon ho trains had arrived at Poeen for twelve hours. The trains are mowed in oi the lines all over Silesia and the provine* of Posen. The railroad administration hue no snow ploughs, as such snows as this ore extremely rare; hence ehovel expeditions have been organised to dig out the drift-covered trains, and carry food to the belated passen^tjre. Telegrams from nvany cities read alike. The street cars ore immovable, telephone and telegraph wires are down, and twins are either not venturing* to leave the terminals, stalled in the country, or are arriving at their destinations alter great difficulty and hours late, with their paseengers wretched with, cold and hungry. Tho turret over the Paradise Door of the Magdeburg Cathedral was Mown down. Many large treea in the T&iergarten here were uprooted. Part of the roof of tb« Opera House was blown off, and workmen, at the risk of their .lives, sought to repair it, so «s to prevent damage to the rwhlt* decorated interior, but they were unnibie t« continue at tho work. These enows, however, did little damage to the interior. Falling chimneys and tile* made the Berlin thoroughfares perilous. Twenty-one pwsone were taken to the hoepUaw. Count Yon Ballestrum, President of the Reioltstag, who ia on kk way to attend the opening of Parliament to-morrow, a snowed in between here and Silesia. ■ r The fine trees planted by Frederick tfce Great, which were uprooted in the PMjk at Potsdam, were the largest of all th* fir tills. Shipping dieartem are reported from the Baltic and North Seas.: The German echooner Sport woe stranded-near Dantzic, and the Danish cutter Inn was wrecked off Suinemunde. The crew* of both vessels were saved.