Ordeal by Cold

The cold had a bulldog grip. Day after day it hung on, biting to the bone. Last week the U.S. suffered more than mere discomfort.

Almost everywhere, fuel supplies ran low. In Tennessee, Governor Jim McCord proclaimed a state of emergency, asked all citizens to join in a voluntary conservation program. In 333 Texas and Oklahoma towns, the Lone Star Gas Co. cut off service to all schools and factories.

Pittsburgh had a coal crisis. Nearby mines had plenty of coal piled above ground, but barges could not carry it down the ice-clogged Monongahela River. Pittsburghers scurried furiously from dealer to dealer, hauled home their meager findings in buckets and family autos.

Priorities & Ear Muffs. The worst shortage was in oil. It affected the entire East, and New York City in particular. With thousands of New Yorkers heatless, Mayor William O'Dwyer ordered oilmen to put deliveries on a priority basis, giving first call to homes, apartment buildings and hotels. The Navy sent 40 of its tankers into civilian service and even dipped into its own oil reserves to relieve distress in some areas. The Commerce Department cut oil and gasoline exports 18 1/2%.

Across the country, citizens took their own emergency measures. They exhausted store stocks of ear muffs, mittens and long underwear. They used electric toasters for heat, and dragged wood-burning stoves out of the barn.

Ice in the Ink. During the week, 270,000 workers were laid off because of fuel and power shortages--200,000 of them in Detroit alone. Rail, river and air transportation was badly disrupted. At subzero temperatures, locomotives were unable to keep up steam pressure. The Ohio River was frozen from shore to shore for the first time in twelve years. Storms at sea delayed the Queen Mary's arrival for two days. In Chicago, where Lake Michigan pilings were so heavily coated with ice that they looked like Sherman tanks (see cut), water-system intakes had to be unclogged with dynamite. At Mayville, N.Y., a trial was suspended when the court clerk found that his inkwell had frozen.

Even California was nipped. A heavy frost destroyed the coastal squash crop. In the back-country hills of Southern California, temperatures fell low enough to put icicles on avocado and citrus groves. Citrus crops were even harder hit by a continuing drought, now so severe that some communities were rationing water.

This week, the cold eased its grip in some places. But amateur weather prophets, amid much labored clowning, generally agreed that ground hogs saw their shadows on Ground-Hog Day (Feb. 2)--and that meant six more weeks of winter.

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