Blizzard of 78'.....Where Were You?

[luds]

Did you guys know it was coming. If we had a storm like that I would be screwed. Don't exactly keep the cabinets stocked.

[CAL]

I was 11, no school for almost two weeks I think. Luckily our garage was connected so we could get to the shovels. Snow drifts were higher than the front door. We had to shovel out from the inside. A guy in the neighborhood had a snowmobile and he tied on a toboggan and made trips to the Purity Supreme in Weymouth so we could all get food. Was pretty much a full time job for the guy for awhile.

My father worked for Mass Electric. A crew from some electric company in Quebec was sent down to work with him since so many power lines were down. He worked 20 hours on, then 4 off for sleep, then 20 on again.....for six weeks, seven days a week. With the union rules, he said he made almost a years pay in that time

Not that it was as bad as '78, but that storm on April 1st, in 96 or 97 was a doozy. I lost power for a week. No heat or hot water (god, the showers were brutal). Top 25 feet of a 60 or 70 foot pine missed my living room by inches. And the funny thing was that there was no snow when I went to bed and by 5 AM we were buried.

[Skitterpop]

I was copying a thread from SOL

[rivsie11]

I was watching cartoons in the house wondering why Mom and Dad would not let us out to play in the snow.

Has anyone read Ten Hours until Dawn? I read it last fall and could not put it down. Lots of stuff went on in the Blizzard that I did not know about.

[luds]

Originally Posted by CAL

I was 11, no school for almost two weeks I think. Luckily our garage was connected so we could get to the shovels. Snow drifts were higher than the front door. We had to shovel out from the inside. A guy in the neighborhood had a snowmobile and he tied on a toboggan and made trips to the Purity Supreme in Weymouth so we could all get food. Was pretty much a full time job for the guy for awhile.

My father worked for Mass Electric. A crew from some electric company in Quebec was sent down to work with him since so many power lines were down. He worked 20 hours on, then 4 off for sleep, then 20 on again.....for six weeks, seven days a week. With the union rules, he said he made almost a years pay in that time

Not that it was as bad as '78, but that storm on April 1st, in 96 or 97 was a doozy. I lost power for a week. No heat or hot water (god, the showers were brutal). Top 25 feet of a 60 or 70 foot pine missed my living room by inches. And the funny thing was that there was no snow when I went to bed and by 5 AM we were buried.

Purity Supreme I think there might actually still be one of them in Reading, MA

[BigFish]

Luds...I bet your plug cabinets are always full?

[luds]

Originally Posted by BigFish

Luds...I bet your plug cabinets are always full?

yeah.....with cases of Bombers.

[Raven]

Never saw a storm like that, and hope I never see one like that ever again!!!
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you will.... again ...part of global warming is more precipitation

chunks of greenland ice will be floating in the bay...

[CAL]

Originally Posted by BigFish

Luds...I bet your plug cabinets are always full?

One of the biggest plug whores I've ever met

[Young Salt]

Originally Posted by luds48

I was a fetus.

i was still two years away from conception

[Clogston29]

I was born in Nov. of '78. 9 months later. hmmmmm

[luds]

Originally Posted by CAL

One of the biggest plug whores I've ever met

oh....he said plug cabinets. i have plugs in my kitchen. plastics go in the cabinets. wood hangs.

[Raven]

not to switch topics....

but i remember a bigger blizzard than 78... ok

it was in the late 50's early 60's .....i remember it

because when we opened the front door to the house
(it opened inwards) there was a wall of snow
you couldn't even see outside ,,,just a huge snow drift.

Hood milk used to deliver our milk
and the postman would deliver to your
mailbox on the porch in those days

we had a snow tunnel all the way
from the front door to the street.

but the kicker was the snow on the opposite side.
we lived in a 3 story house and the snow drift went clear
up to the bottom of the second story windows 15' or more
feet high... i remember jumping out that second story window
to slide down the snow...... >>>>>>>>NOT <<<<<<<<<<<<
i submerged myself into a snow bank and almost sufficated in it..

it was a royally stupid thing to do.... i managed to dig out but it
took me awhile...

[Katie]

Originally Posted by Young Salt

i was still two years away from conception

i was 11 years away..

i agree that were due for another storm like this cause of global warming.. but, i hope we don't get one that big.

[Backbeach Jake]

Raven, I remember that storm. I think it was 1957, I hadn't started school yet. My family drove from Southern Ohio to North Truro in it. I can remember being hypnotized by snowflakes coming at the windshield for hours on end. We finally got there and the next day Dad's 54 Chevy was buried, all that showed was the ball on the antenna. The kid across the street was digging tunnels but my folks wouldn't let me out. I was POed.

[Mike P]

I was living in Pawtucket. I measured a level 44" in the back yard. There were drifts as high as my grandmother's garage next door.

The storm also created one of those quintessential Row Dylun legends--Joe Garrahy's red plaid shirt, which now sits in some kind of Rhody hall of fame

[islander]

I was a 21 year old seaman in the Coast Guard on Nantucket, 6 to 10"of snow, but it was all in drifts as the wind was gusting to over 90. I left the island that weekend and couldn't believe my eyes.

[ThomCat]

Left work in Providence, RI, at 3:00 PM for home in West Warwick, less than 10 miles. On the way, among other things, I pushed a few cars, made up a few new swears and scored the last package of peanut butter crackers at a thoroughly gutted Cumberland Farms. Made it home a mere 7 hours later walking the last 2 miles through 3 foot plus drifts. Any of you guys who know me will attest, drifts of those proportions are almost over my head. Anyway after almost 3 days of digging out, made it out in time to celebrate my 26th birthday doing the Arctic (downtown W.W. strip)crawl. Didn't have to watch out for cars, there weren't any. Good thing. A night like that would have killed me today!!!

[Bronko]

Originally Posted by BigFish

Remember the Bean Pot was snowed in at the Garden?!?!?!

Slip....you grow up in Abington?

8 Years old, at the Beanpot with my father. We actually made it home.

[striperondafly]

I was 6 years old in NJ - I remeber a few big storms but not one in particular

[capecodder]

Was 11 yrs old. Grew up in Falmouth. I remember being unable to open the doors as drifts were higher. Once we dug out, we built tunnels through the yard in the snow. Also took a trip to our cottage in N. Truro (I think same time) and the snow/ice on the beach was over our heads with crakcks all in it. Like a maze. We had no idea it was coming. Were out to dinner at Golden Sails chinese in E. Falmouth when snow started. white out by the time we finished.

[snake slinger]

i was 7 years old i remember the snow was level with our front steps.my dad didnt make it home from work he was stuck for 3 days

[Adamfishes]

In 03 we got more snow then 78 but the winds weren't bad. So I'm sure there will be more of this weather to come. Esp with the global warming trends of spikes in either extremes of warm or cold.

[stripersnipr]

I lived in Scituate where I grew up for the 78 blizzard but take away the deadly tides and winds the blizzard of 05 here in Plymouth dumped a lot more snow than we saw in Scituate in 78.

[Rockfish9]

I was working for Lynn Porche Audi at the time,I left work at 10:AM driving a 1967 Dodge power wagon all wheel drive(former milatary vehicle) with a snow plow, it took me 4 hours to get home when it normaly was a 30 minute drive... I plowed snow for two days straight and did snow removal for a week... I made enough money, with my trade and a little of my savings to buy a brand new ford F 250 with a plow and paid cash!

[striprman]

Left Stoughton at noon and drove to Brockton. Didn't go to work until the next Monday. I'd say the snow was 36" when it all stopped.
Remember the wicked storm two weeks before the blizzard ? That one is in the books too.

[fishaholic18]

I-95's Exchange Street overpass in Pawtucket

[fishaholic18]

"Heavy snow tonight,tapering off tomorrow"

That's what the weather page of The Providence Journal said on Monday morning, Feb. 6, 1978.

Blizzard of '78: Storm statistics

Official snowfall: 28.6 inches at T.F. Green Airport, the National Weather Service measuring station. During the most intense 24 hours, 27.6 inches fell, a record dating to 1905.

Deepest Weather Service-listed unofficial snowfall: 54 inches, Woonsocket.

Least unofficial snowfall: 10 inches, Block Island.

Most intense snowfall: 3 inches/hour Feb. 6, 7 to 8 p.m.

Biggest wind gust: 58 knots, or 67 mph, Feb. 6, 8 p.m.

Duration: Began Feb. 6 at 10:10 a.m.; ended Feb. 7 at 10:44 p.m.

Deaths attributed to Blizzard: 21 (in Rhode Island).

Cars abandoned on Routes 95, 195 and 146: 1,950.

Abandoned cars towed from Providence streets: 3,000.

Drivers who spent first night in cars: 1,000.

Motorists rescued by Rhode Island National Guard: 2,968.

Children stranded overnight in schools: 900.

Shelters opened: 66.

Persons sheltered: 9,150.

Trips by National Guard ferrying doctors, nurses, medicine: 3,527.

Home, businesses losing electric power: 11,800.

U.S. military rescue force: 478 soldiers, 178 vehicles.

Pieces of equipment rented from Buffalo, N.Y.: 100.

City's initial estimate of snow-clearing force: 100 pieces.

City's later estimate of snow-clearing force: 8 pieces.

State of emergency declared: Feb. 6 at 5 p.m.

Providence reopened to business: Feb. 13

Cost to state: $6.6 million, expenses and lost taxes.

Total federal disaster assistance: $14,841,484.

Federal snow-removal aid: $4,272,116.

Food stamps: $7,665,768 to an estimated 90,000 people.

Lost wages, private sector: $30 million.

Workers who lost wages: 152,000.

Unemployment benefits paid: $8 million.

Homes damaged: 30.

Looting suspects charged: 25.

[whiplash]

Iwas in college in Boston ( Boston State College) and lived in Brookline in a second floor apt we jumped to get out to shovel the front enterance. Spent two days delivering meds to people on Xcountry skis out of the Kenmore Red Cross until some guy asked if I could swim- spent the next 5 days in a duk in Revere pulling people and pets out of flooded houses. Talk about friggen cold and wet. But something I'll never forget.

[BigFish]

Raven...my Dad was a milkman for H.P. Hood......where did you live?