From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Jan. 9, 1973:

Bitterly cold temperatures were making area residents miserable this week. The overnight low this morning in Lawrence had been recorded at five degrees below zero, an official record low for this date, with the wind chill making it feel like minus 28 at 7:45 a.m. A local power failure was making matters worse. Kansas Power and Light Co. manager Austin Stedham reported today that a power failure had occurred at about 4:20 a.m. on a transmission line on the eastern edge of 19th Street. Virtually all of north and east Lawrence and part of south Lawrence had been without power for more than an hour, Stedham said. Two fires had been reported in the city overnight when a furnace and a stove had over-heated after the outage had interrupted power to the fan motors. The cold was expected to continue this week, joined by occasional snow flurries and northerly winds. Ice-skaters were perhaps one of the few groups enjoying the weather, as tennis courts had been flooded at West, Central, and South junior high schools as well as at the high school. Bill Womack, director of maintenance and repairs, reported this morning that the ice at all the sites was in excellent condition.