WINTER GRIPS STATES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18601, 8 January 1924, Page 7

WINTER GRIPS STATES.

POLICEMAN FROZEN TO DEATH TRANSPORTATION DISLOCATED. A. and N.Z. NEW YORK. J*n 6. . The severest cold wave for 20 years has gripped the country from east to west through the centre of,- the continent. Twelve deaths are reported.

. Communication an dtransportation systems are disrupted, and there is untold suffering. In Chicago the temperature reached 22 degrees below zero, and at Fargo, in North Dakota, it reached 35 degrees below zero. North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, lowa, Kansas, Missouri and ■Wisconsin are the hardest hit. . Policemen have been frozen to death on their beats.

Telephone and telegraph wires are snapping from the cold, and water and gas mains are bursting.

Several steamers on the Great Lakes are reported lost. The tremendous cold, radiating to the south-south-west, even brought freezing temperatures to subtropical United States, where winter resorts are now crowded.

Northern Canada and Alaska, which have been held under freezing pressure for a week past, when the temperature reached 40 degrets below zero, are now relieved, tho temperature in Alaska being; to-day reported at. 35 degrees above zero.