Storm Topples Telegraph Poles, Threatening Streets
A morning windstorm turned a downtown intersection into a dangerous thicket of downed lines, nearly causing a panic.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
At 9 o'clock this morning, a large telegraph pole, at the corner of Market and Anastasia streets, was broken short off by high winds. Other poles in the neighborhood were broken or torn down in quick succession and several streets were soon blockaded with poles and an inextricable snarl of wire. Many horses were entangled and a panic was narrowly avoided. The streets were at once roped off and large gangs of men were set at work to clear the wreckage. For the time, freight delivered at the Albany wharf has to be dragged by hand around the block. No injury to life or limb has thus far been reported, but there have been narrow escapes.
“Many horses were entangled and a panic was narrowly avoided.”
While this happened in a historical context that may refer to a different city than Seattle (the paper covers Pacific Coast news), the image of urban infrastructure collapsing during an extreme weather event is a perennial issue for growing Pacific Northwest cities dealing with windstorms.
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