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N0KFQ > TODAY 01.03.08 08:00l 61 Lines 2987 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 1
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To : TODAY@ALLUS
March 1, 1910
Trains buried by avalanche
Two trains are swept into a canyon by an avalanche in Wellington,
Washington, on this day in 1910, killing 96 people. Due to the
remote location of the disaster and the risk of further
avalanches, efforts to rescue survivors and find the bodies of
the dead were not completed until several days later.
The Great Northern Railroad’s westbound Spokane Express left for
Seattle, Washington, from Spokane on February 23. On February 26,
a blizzard in Washington caused high snow drifts in the Cascade
Mountains that blocked the rail lines. Despite many workers
attempting to clear the tracks, the train was still stuck in
Wellington, a small village in King County just past the Stevens
Pass, nearly a week later. The area’s telegraph lines had come
down in the storm, and there was little passengers or train
personnel could do but wait out the storm.
The Wellington train station was located near the base of Windy
Mountain, but had no protective cover. On February 28, weather
conditions changed, with temperatures dropping and thunderstorms
battering the area. In Idaho, several miners died in an
avalanche, and flooding imperiled residents of low-lying areas.
At 4:20 a.m. the following morning, with approximately 50
passengers and 75 employees of Great Northern Railroad sleeping
in the Spokane Express, an avalanche of snow crashed down Windy
Mountain, prompted by a combination of rain, lighting and
thunder.
Charles Andrews, a rail worker and resident of Wellington who
witnessed the disaster, described the scene: “White Death moving
down the mountainside above the trains. Relentlessly it advanced,
exploding, roaring, rumbling, grinding and snapping.ö The Spokane
Express and a mail train were both thrown from the tracks down a
nearby gorge 150 feet deep. The Wellington station was wiped
away, though the town’s hotel and store were untouched.
At the bottom of the gorge, the trains were covered by 40 to 70
feet of snow and debris. Because the telegraph lines were down,
the people of Wellington were unable to call for immediate
assistance. Despite the risk of further avalanches, many people
pitched in to try to dig out survivors; it was not until the
night of March 2 that assistance from outside Wellington was able
to reach the site. By that time, 23 people had been pulled out
alive, most with serious injuries. It took over a week to recover
the bodies of all 96 victims of the avalanche, which then had to
be moved by toboggan to the rail lines for further transport.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, the worst in Washington’s
history to that time, the town of Wellington was renamed Tye and
new rail lines with protective tunnels were established; the old
line is now a popular hiking trail. Lessons were also learned
about the dangers of clear-cutting timber on mountains above
towns and villages, a practice that was partially responsible for
the avalanche.
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