Six Killed In Blizzard In Newfoundland

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28823, 18 February 1959, Page 13

Six Killed In Blizzard In Newfoundland

ST. JOHN’S (Newfoundland), February 17.

A blizzard howled through St. John’s yesterday, killing six persons in snowslides and drifts and burying others alive for hours before they were rescued.

One of the dead was a 100-year-old man, Isiah Dawe, whose home was among a dozen hit by an avalanche at Chain Rock, near the entrance to the harbour of the old North Atlantic port. Four other persons died in the same snowslide. Winds up to 135 miles an hour whipped drifts ot 15 feet in the streets and kept most of St John’s 60,000 residents huddled in their homes. Power lines and telephone poles were blown over, leaving them without electricity or 'phone service for hours. At Chain Rock, snow came crashing down a rocky cliff at the mouth of the harbour on to a cluster of small houses.

The dead there included a family of three: James Piercy, aged 42, his wife, 38, and Mrs Piercy’s

76-year-old' mother, Mrs S. Vincent. Theodore Wells, a youth, died in an adjacent house. Nine neighbours, including Dawe, were sent to hospital, and the old man died last night Another of the injured, 16-year-old Barbara Noseworthy, was buried for 12 hours under snow and debris before searchers heard her cries and pulled her free. Another girl was trapped under a stove for three hours before she was rescued.

Eleven persons were trapped in one house in the area but were dug out unharmed. An unidentified girl died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a car buried under snow drifts. With three friends she had sought shelter in the ear from the raging winds.