Monday, February 04, 2008

The Blizzard of '78

A mammoth blizzard—the worst since 1888—slammed the Northeast, dropping from 1 to 4 ft. of snow in the latest blast from a whiter of stormy discontent. Raging from Virginia to Maine, the hurricane-like storm killed at least 56 people, caused an estimated half billion dollars' worth of damage and crippled Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island for five days.
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This is how Time Magazine described the Blizzard of 1978. In the coastal town of Scituate, where I lived at the time, winds threw 40 foot boats from their marinas onto the middle of Main Street. I will never forget hearing the Coast Guard on my husband's short band radio incredulously screaming that--right in front of their eyes-- they could not save one house and then another from being washed away into the raging ocean. We lost electricity for days. People were stranded in their cars on major highways and had to be rescued. Mostly everyone who could opened their homes to thousands of people who needed shelter.
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And what I remember most of all is that the world stopped for a time. Commerce and chores were replaced by community and commonality. I loved that then, and I long for it now.
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So here then, on its anniversary, is a look at the of the Blizzard of '78:
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12 comments:

  1. p.s. did i mention that i love the ocean?

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  2. WOW it looks a lot like when cyclones wipe out towns here. Although haven't been too bad since Cyclone Tracy devistated Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974. It was like the whole world stopped there too! But BLIZZARDS are new to me, like yours in 78! Careful what you wish for KJ!!! Or is it just the community and commonality that you're missing apart from the sea breeze ;)

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  3. I had a bunch of friends in college who were "Blizzard Babies"--lol! There was quite a boom in New England that November. The hospitals even had onesies that declared "Blizzard Baby!" across one's chest.

    kj, I didn't know you'd lived in Scituate. My mom lived there for a few years when she was a baby--that was the early '50s though!

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  4. I was in high school in Connecticut during that storm. I remember Ella Grasso, our govener at the time, declaring a state of emergency and closing the roads to all but emergency vehicles. Everyone was skiing and snowmobiling everyone. It was crazy!

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  6. Wow! I'm not a snow baby, and while they flash it on the news all the time, I have to say your pics paint the spooky picture best....I was dejavued at how they look like our hurricanes ladled with snow. And yes, the world stops......and suddenly getting to work on time, paying bills, mailing birthday cards, has nothing whatsoever to do with real life....

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  7. Wow, what a memory. Although sad, still a low casualty rate which is a relief. During that time, I was a teenage graduate from nursing college and was assigned as a public health nurse in the rural province of Antique. I have only been through 1 blizzard in 1982, the year I arrived in the US. I don't think it was as bad as yours but the floes were over one storey high. In the midst of it we all came out and posed for photographs in front of the hospital. What a crazy sight. Do you pronounce it like "Situate"?

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  8. Wow. That looks like my worst nightmare.

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  9. I was in a blizzard in Amarillo in the 80's-true white out conditions. At times it was impossible to tell the earth from the sky. Scarey, but cool! Well, cold.

    I love the ocean too. Snow, not so much.

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  10. I was living in Massachusetts during that Blizzard.
    In fact, just last weekend my family and I were talking about that very subject, telling my nieces all of our memories and favorite stories from that storm!!
    It was really something quite amazing....

    My area was declared a state of emergency, and everything was closed down for days.

    We helped my Dad dig out the next day, and I think the day after that the store opened. We had to walk in to town, hauling our sled behind us, so that we could get groceries. Dad blazed a path for us in the snow, plowing the way with his body because it was so deep! A couple of miles has never felt so LONG as it did that particular time!

    Thanks for sharing!!
    ~j

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  11. Wow! incredible! i know what you mean, we have a lot of disasters and the whole community stops and comes together and that is why i love Topanga. you would too! hope yer feeling better and healing well!

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