1893 Snowstorm Leaves City Short of Coal and Water
Deep snow blocks the rails and the rivers, leaving Seattle shivering and hungry as coal supplies vanish.
Two inches more snow were added yesterday to the twenty-four inches previously on the ground, and it began snowing again last night. Little progress is being made toward thawing out and repairing frozen water pipes so that people might at least have a supply of water. To complete the hardship, it is now almost certain that there will be a coal famine. The Black Diamond Coal Company did not have a bit of coal yesterday, and the Oregon Improvement Company was out, with the exception of screening coal. All city schools were closed yesterday on account of the freezing of water pipes. The snow has piled up so on the roofs of buildings that people are beginning to be afraid of them breaking down, and men are at work on nearly all the roofs of large buildings shoveling off snow. The rivers flowing into the Sound are frozen, and steamers have been delayed or held up.
“The snow has piled up so on the roofs of the buildings that people are beginning to be afraid of their breaking down.”
Extreme weather events have always tested Seattle's infrastructure, from the 1893 coal famine to modern winter storms that paralyze the city's hills. This report highlights how thin the margins for essential resources like heating and water were in the city's early days, long before the modern municipal grid.
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