A 1974 flu epidemic causes low school attendance in O’Fallon, Belleville & other areas
Looking back in the pages of the O’Fallon Progress:
100 years ago, Feb. 14, 1924
Last Wednesday evening between 6:30 and 7 o’clock, O’Fallon and more than a hundred other cities in Southern Illinois were in darkness caused by the burning up of a generator at the Collinsville plant of the Illinois Power and Light Corporation.
What caused the machine to go down could not be ascertained.
It was running 3,600 revolutions a minute, and at that speed almost anything could happen.
When the generator gave way, it threw the loads on the lines onto the other generators at the plant and in the plants at Hillsboro and DuQuoin so suddenly that they “kicked out,” and the whole circuit was dead for nearly half an hour until the machines could be started again, “tuned in” and thrown back on the lines.
Company officials said it would cost probably ten thousand dollars to repair the generator.
75 years ago, Feb. 17, 1949
While endorsing nearly a dozen recent safety advances in the 2,100-ton-a-day Black Eagle Mine No. 2, west of this city, Federal coal mine inspectors recommend further ventilating, timbering, and haulage safeguards in a report released by the Bureau of Mines.
Operated by the St. Louis and O’Fallon Coal Company, it employed 210 men when G.W. Hammons and T. Alvin Scully reinspected it in December.
Inspectors Hammons and Scully proposed better quality air at three points in the mine, air-lock doors or attendants at the single doors, warning signs at abandoned workings, beginning the preshift examination not more than four hours before the first shift enters, adoption of a systematic timbering plan, including setting safety posts or cross bars at the working faces, for greater protection against any roof falls, unobstructed haulageway clearance, discontinuance of unnecessary backpoling and getting on and off fast-moving trips, safer man-trip practices, and added hoisting safeguards.
No trip riders were observed running ahead of locomotives to open doors, they reported approvingly. Improvements included closed nonconductive boxes for carrying explosives in the mine, frame-grounds for electric drills, and progress in installing bare power wires or insulators, and in bonding the main-line track.
Permissible explosives and electric detonators were used for off-shift blasting, the inspectors stated.
Other recommendations called for prohibition of carrying matches and other flame-making devices underground, several electrical and mechanical safeguards, and ample underground first-aid supplies.
50 years ago, Feb. 14, 1974
Hundreds of people in the O’Fallon area are lying in bed or lying around (if they’re strong enough) coughing, sniffling, and feeling blah because the flu bug has hit the area.
The flu bug has cost many people days at work and cost students days at school. Calls to the schools, doctors, and drug stores prove the bug is taking its toll on victims.
O’Fallon Township High School reported last week that attendance figures show an average of 200 students or more absent each day of class because of the bug.
This week, however, according to Mrs. Marjorie Meinkoth of the attendance department at OTHS, the absentee rate is beginning to drop slightly. Harold Landwehrmier, superintendent of O’Fallon Grade School District 90, reported 103 absent from junior high school classes during one day of classes last week.
Landwehrmier said that school would not be closed if the absentee rate goes too high because health officers advise that closing the schools may do more harm than good.
“Whenever the schools are closed the kids get together anyway. If they were sick then the germs would be spread more. The best thing to do is to keep the sick child home until he or she is better,” Landwehrmier said.
In the Grant School District, approximately 10 percent of the pupils and teachers were absent from class. The majority were victims of the flu. Last Friday, 111 students were absent in the Grant district and five of the district’s 53 teachers were out too.
Forest Shoulders, Superintendent of District 110, said the normal absentee rate is five percent.
The bug is just beginning to make itself felt farther south. Charles McCoy, principal of Belleville Township High School East, said that the absentee lists are beginning to grow as each day passes.
Reports from Collinsville are that the bug hasn’t made itself known very much there either.
The doctors and pharmacies are feeling the effect of the flu bug. Business has been good.
“We’re working longer hours,” said one nurse from Dr. James Needles’ office.
Needles’ office reported that 35 percent of the calls coming in are asking for medicine to relieve the symptoms of the flu. However, the patient must first see Needles before any medicine is prescribed.
Dr. I.S. Hiebert’s office reported that one-third of its patients complain of having the flu.
There are also many calls for medicine.
Approximately 10 to 20 percent of the school children are down with the flu, reports Dr. Efren Naguit’s office. Naguit also said that 10 percent of the adults are also catching the bug.
Most of the flu in this area last anywhere from three to five days. The best way to beat it, doctors recommend, is to go to bed, take aspirin and medicines prescribed, and drink fluids.
