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when ice in the river literally choked the city’s port^J^^:-^
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New Orleanians climbed the levee on Friday, February 17, 1899, and stared at a sight seen here once in a century and a half — icebergs floating down the Mississippi river.	, r
For the first and only time since „ steamboats began chugging into the lower reaches of the river, a huge ice floe interrupted navigation. It took four days for the frozen mass, moving r.t five "miles hour, to pass the city.
On Sunday, the 19th, nine-tenths of the population of near 300,000 turned out to wonder at a scene described as being' similar to a gigantic flock of swimming geese, or to a big field of dirty cotton. The best vantage point was at Carrollton and the river. '	J • -: '	<•	•
The weather had turned balmy, and residents were in a festive mood after shivering and even going hungry through ■ a Carnival week during which the temperature had dropped to 6.8> degrees ■— 6.2 degrees colder than it has ever l.een recorded here before or since — and three inches of snow bed fallen. '	.
The bimdred-fcot-widc floe first ;■ p-peared in the upper limits of the city shortly after daylight on Friday. It r.nme as no surprise. For three weeks the upper and central Mississippi Valley had been c\vr.vhc-J:v>ed by r* "cedc-nted cold. An •
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James parish plantation' owner, wrote of^l such an occurrence in his records of Janu-^'.'--.- ‘ ary, 1825.	V'
Even without 'the ice* the Carnival season of 1899 would be memorable. The > city was filling with visitors when on fa. Sunday, February 12, the blizzard moved in.	'	■
That morning the temperature de-'^' scended to 13 degrees—two degrees colder than the previous record low on Janu-' ary 9, 1886. Services were cut short or even abandoned as churches could not be warmed to the comfort point-. Trains were hours behind schedule; work on the '
, riverfront ceased in a downpour of sleet.,
, Then came the worst winter day1 ever experienced in New Orleans. Shriek-.,; ing northwest winds blew in three inches of snow, mixed with sleet. The weather bureau logged the low temperature of 6.8 . degrees on Monday, February 13.	.:■■■
The numbing cold closed in on a community,in which homes were built to _ ‘ . provide co± ,'ort in a subtropical summer, not. i roter.tion p gainst frost. ?%fost resi-
■	’ »:<vs were warmed only by coal or wood-burning stoves or fireplaces. There was no insulation against the chill.
In hundreds of households the sup-, ply of coal or wood was used up in the
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