Community Chat

[Mominohio]

I really remember this!

Our local city at the time (Mansfield Ohio) made national news as a tractor trailer was drifted over with the driver inside for like 6 days before rescued. 

The blizzard was actually in January, but I'm sure the posted pic was just circulating for some time, and the date/ years was from another longer ago post.

I was a junior in high school at the time and we missed a ton of school that year.

As I recall it, there wasn't a huge advanced warning and many people were caught off guard in our area. Area neighbors (we lived in the city at the time) several days in, were trying to walk to an open store and get basic needs. My parents were well stocked and we didn't need to leave home. 

It was weeks before everyone was dug out on the little side streets. I remember listening to the radio day and night and they were hooking up people with snow mobiles and health care workers to get the to the hospitals.  Some Workers who were already there, stayed for up to a week. They were also connecting people who needed things (medications, food etc.) with those who had snow mobiles and four wheel drives and could get them what they needed. 

There were no cell phones, no gps, no internet. Everything that happened was by phone and the radio giving out numbers and taking people's requests/needs and broadcasting them so people could connect and get/give the help needed. 

We didn't loose power, luckily, but had we done so, we did have a fireplace and plenty of wood that would have helped. 

There were winds of about 75 mph in some areas for awhile, a good foot or more of snow and as I recall, we already had quite a lot of snow on the ground from previous snows. 

It was quite an experience to live through. 

[sunshine45]

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@Shelbelle wrote:

I am in MD, I remember blizzards in Feb of 79 and 83 but not in 78. And 42 years ago was 79, not 78. 

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@Shelbelle 

On Feb. 5-6 1978, Baltimore received about a foot of snow and up to 18 inches in others parts of state. While this caused some problems, Baltimore was spared the worst of nature's fury that year.

[haddon9]

I was 23 and living in NJ....sorry I just don't remember.

[hckynut]

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@Cakers3 wrote:

Yes, I remember this in MA. 

@Cakers3 

This pictures looks pretty close to what I watched out my window in 1975. I lived in an apartment where I had a clear view of the Interstate Exit Ramp. Had I not turned around and came back home instead of going to work? 

That was where my exit was coming home. By the time I got my car in my garage and inside my apartment, that was the scene. A few minutes later and my car would have been in the mess.

My co-workers, and thousands of others, were stuck in the factory plants and offices for 2 days after this. 

And as Big Companies do!  It took them 2 months to decide if I should have an "absent" put on my work record. And this is just absent, not Paid absent. The honchos had to discuss whether my "absence" qualified, as because of a Blizzard! Yeh, really. 

hckynut 🏒

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[LindaSal]

It was Feb 5th into the 6th in 1978.   RI got 28.6 inches of snow in 30 hours.   I was a senior in high school and remember it well!   There were no computers to forecast the weather or decent radar for that matter.  We all went to school in the morning and were let out early.   I remember my mom driving out in the storm trying to locate all of us kids.

She was so traumatized by the whole experience.   It was the worst snowstorm I've ever seen in my lifetime.    Rte 95 was actually at a stand still for days.

[Imaoldhippie]

I was a single mom at the time with 2 kids living in an apartment and we lost all power.  A high school friend of mine was a single dad with 2 kids and he lived in a house with a wood burning stove.  He came and pick me and the kids up in his truck and we went to his house.  I cooked chili and made coffee on the wood stove for the emergency workers that were out rescuing people that were stranded in their cars.  We stayed there for 4 days before the power was restored to my apartment complex.

[coffee drinker]

What memories.  In this room, where the PC is, I have a pic from the Blizzard of '78 (Feb 6, 1978) of my husband shoveling by hand, no snowblower, our driveway.  Can't believe there's a smile on his face.  

ETA -- we're in CT where it's snowing right now!!!  Come on spring!!!

[JYWilliams]

I also remember it in Kentucky. I was eight at the time. I tried to step out in it and got swallowed. That was a whole lot of snow. We missed a lot of school days.

[ECBG]

@crawford5153 

That picture is amazing!!  I've never seen anything like it!

[chickenbutt]

We used to get HUGE winters and lots of snow.   I remember one winter that, IIRC, was in the late 80s and everything was closing - even the casinos!

I was in a meeting when we heard over the PA that everybody was sent home.   We were like 'uh, what about us?'.  We were told that we had to finish the meeting.   By the time I got out to the parking lot there were a couple of feet on my car and it was snowing like crazy.   

Man, I went around the car removing the snow and by the time I got all the way around there was another foot of snow on the car.  It was pretty insane - I had to go faster and faster around the car to get it where I could drive off.

The next big one that comes to mind was the winter of 2004/2005.  I recall seeing a neighbor's house, where there was just a 3' fence around the front yard and the snow was higher than that fence.   I took some pics of that one and I look back at them every now and then.

I miss the big winters.