Comments on: 35 Years Later: The Blizzard of ’78

By: Kathy Jacobitz

Kathy Jacobitz — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 01:12:23 +0000

I was 11 years old during the blizzard of 78. My dad was stuck on 128 outside of Boston and my mom was home with 6 kids. Ah what an adventure! Us kids went around to all the neighbors to check on them and Mom kept the wood stove going to heat the house and cook food. When my dad finally managed to get home the snow banks were easily 15 feet high but the driveway was clear.

By: Ken Cottrill

Ken Cottrill — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 17:45:03 +0000

Oh yes we remember! We lived east of Akron, Ohio out in the country. I was 16 years old and was out of school for a week as school was cancelled! The National Guard had to plow our roads because the drifting snow was so deep that the county plow trucks didn’t have a chance. I watched that county truck hit the drift and his rear wheels came off the ground! The Guard didn’t even slow down! They went right thru it. The winds blew like 70 mph for 3 days straight. We talk of that storm every winter wondering if it could happen again. We’re still waiting!

By: Tom Easton

Tom Easton — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 02:36:33 +0000

I have a special DVD put out by the History Channel. It covers the Blizzard of 1977 that Hit the Buffalo, New York area. I have seen pictures of people standing on snow banks and touching the telepnone wires . I lived through it as a 20 year old’. If you ever get a chance to purchase it from the History Channel you willl see for you self it was a Historical event that will go down in History as one of the biggest and baddest winter snow storms ever……. I will look forward to seeing your responce friends.

By: Linda S.

Linda S. — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 01:48:03 +0000

I really do remember the Blizzard of ’78. I was working as a hairdresser then and had 5 days off because of the storm. Back home we lived on a dead end street and my house is a raised ranch and the snow was plowed to the end of the street and was higher then the roof of my house. the kids in the neighborhood managed to make a path down the mount of snow and were sleding down it for days. We cooked on the gas grill and shared the generator with my in-laws next door for electricity. My husband (at the time) and I both had snowmobiles and went to the nearest Alamac’s market and waited for the trailor trucks to come in the bread and milk and we delivered it to the people in need for 23 hrs straight. I was cold and hard work but I enjoyed helping people and making new friends for we all were in the same predicament at the same time.

By: James

James — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:42:32 +0000

I remember it like yesterday!
Was 10 almost 11 years old we lived 4 miles out of town, school out for over a week. No food for days til Sheriffs Dept & a Local 4 wheel club came to help the 15 homes buried on our road. They used snowmobiles & a road grader to clear our road, we had 12-15 ft drifts!
I do have some old pictures of this Historic & Deadly Storm. Oh, we are in South Central Indiana.Happy Valentines Day to All!!
James

By: Ileana Habsburg-Snyder

Ileana Habsburg-Snyder — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:10:52 +0000

I was a college student in Kalamazoo Michigan. Kalamazoo is in a lake effect snow belt so we already had 24 inches of snow on the ground before the Blizzard of 78 hit. When it did hit we got an additional 36 inches of snow. All the cars on the street were completely bured. My boyfriend (now my husband) drove a van. You could see the top three or four inches of his van in the snow. All the rest of the vehicles had vansihed under the snow. School was cancelled for six days, a record. No on was allowed on the streets. My husband and I did go for a walk and I fell into a snow drift and sunk so far that the snow was over my head. I felt panic because I couldn’t get out of the drift. My husband told me to lay down horizontally on the snow and try to roll. That did the trick. I rolled until sideways until he could reach me and pull me out.

By: Jan Walton

Jan Walton — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 03:54:32 +0000

Seems like storm stories always highlight storms past. What about more current extreme weather conditions? I’m curious whether you take the position we are just going through normal weather cycles and patterns, without what scientists call “climate change”? Just wondering.

By: Christine

Christine — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:40:47 +0000

I was 10 years old. I remember the giant piles of snow, so large that we dug tunnels through them. The show after being shoveled in front of our house made such a pile that we step onto it from the front porch. I remember sledding around the neighborhood because of the giant piles of snow. Brooklyn, NY

By: Kathy

Kathy — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:04:24 +0000

I was only a three year newly wed.My husband the time was a letter carrier for the post office.The snow came down so heavy & fast with drifts in my area of 15-20ft.I was a terrible thing.My husband couldn’t drive home from work.He worked about 12 miles away from home.He called and said he was going to walk home.He left the post office around 12pm he got home about 6pm.He looked like a snowman.He had a beard at the time with frost hanging off his face,I thought he had frost bite.His feet & toes were turning blue.We couldn’t even get to the emergency room to check him out.Thank goodness he was ok.We were snow bound for four days.,Even though the plow were trying there best the roads became icy & to combat it they had to deal with the blowing snow from the snow drifts.On the fifth day we were able to start getting around.A friend took us to pick up my husbands car that was plowed in & covered with snow about 10feet high.We all shoveled him out.It was something to live through.This was in New York area,Queens.