Awaiting TV from Boise, Ontario viewers pick it up from Omaha; then the rain hit

From a June 1953 issue of the Argus Observer

Families in Ontario, Oregon who had purchased TV sets in anticipation of beginning to receive programs from the first Boise station later in the summer found themselves watching shows out of Omaha, Kansas City and Oklahoma.

Mrs. Raymond Westcott and her family picked up a broadcast of “Strike it Rich” and, after a weekend of occasional viewing, she was hoping the phenomenon would continue long enough for her to watch “I Love Lucy” Monday evening and later the coronation of Queen Elizabeth later in the week.

The newspaper reported that “an unusual condition of high storms over the intermountain region was credited with bringing the telecasting waves into the range of Ontario antenna.

The Westcotts told the paper they “received TV Friday at 6:25 p.m., Saturday at 10:15 a.m. and 1:15 p.m., Sunday at 9:30 a.m. and 9 p.m. and this morning (Monday) at 8:35 a.m.”

But for others the weather struck home.

Sunday evening ten minutes of torrential rain and hail created havoc for families and businesses on the east side of town other residents. A downpour caused an overload that plugged a main sewer line under the railroad tracks and many residents on the east side of the city spent the night lugging out buckets of sewer water that collected in their basements.

(To take a look at the old underpass that still takes Ontrio's Idaho Avenue under the railroad tracks, double click the headline here, click on the street view picture, and hold clicker on it to spin the view down the road to the east.)