Blizzard of '78 Documentary pt1 

I was 8 years old and through my eyes it was fantastic! Snow up over the windows, no school for a week, built a massive snow fort with tunnels with the other kids on the street. Memorable.

I remember, as a kid, climbing this huge oak tree, walking out on the branch as far as I could and jumping into the snow drifts. It was great being a kid and not having to carry all these worries.

I was age 10. School cancelled for 2 weeks. It was the most Winter fun I've ever had. Will never forget the Blizzard of 78'

the Blizzard of '77 was Epic ..I was 10 , the '70s were a great time to be a kid .

I'll never forget it. We were dismissed from high school early, with heavy snow already falling. By the time I got home a half hour later, the wind seemed to be whopping from every direction, I coul barely make out the outline my hand, holding it out at arm's length. From there it got even worse. School was cancelled for a week, unheard of in New England. It took us days to dig out. What documentations usually fail to mention is that there had been a major blizzard the week before, which did not melt. That was a very cold winter. Thanks for posting.

I was a junior in high school in Central KY. We probably missed 6 weeks of school straight, maybe more. I can remember listening to the radio broadcast the daily school closings and crossing my fingers for another day.

I remember it well. My 1974 Mustang wasn't seen for 10 days. We found the antenna sticking out of untouched snow a week later. This was in Flushing New York. My future husband, his parents & me. It was a blast.

Living in New England at the time I remember going in and out of the house through the windows. Cars completely covered and gone, sometimes for a month. We walked everywhere; it was so much fun! Back when people did for themselves and used ingenuity to exist.

I remember this!!!!! Man, I'm old lol!

I remember the storm perfectly. I was 12:years old. The weather man, Herb Clarke, said we were only going to get a dusting of snow the night before. I remember going to bed and praying it would snow hard enough to get the day off from school. When I got up at 6:30 am, my brother came into the house from delivering newspapers and was covered head to toe in snow. He said nothing was moving and there was a foot and a half of snow on the ground already. Still we had to listen to KYW am news to find out if our school was closed. All Philadelphia public and parochial schools are closed came the word out of the radio. By 8am we were out knocking on friends doors to figure out what we were going to do with the day off. What a great winter. The snow hardly melted from December to March.

Good memories of 78 at South Portland Maine in the Coast Guard Cutter Spar. Woke up and went down the stairs to make my coffee ,open the curtain to check ,ALL WHITE UP TO 7ft. Only the tip of the antenna of my car about 2 inches. And the very first time I saw a 35 to 40 ft waves, beautiful. Love that state of Maine ,is a state of mind ,with lots of good people.

State of Massachusetts was closed for a week. Was in a hilly section of Boston the snow covered the back door had to shovel out from in side the coast got hammered and flooded with Blizzard winds people were skimobiling to the Fire stations to get milk bread eggs the trucks could not get threw so they dropped their goods at the Fire station, Snow was up to car roofs on my street. They used a bulldozer to clear the streets of snow. It was a Winter wonderland everything was very quiet with that deep blanket of snow. I am glad I was there in 1978 to enjoy that amazing * Blizzard!!

In 78 a Datsun pick up was buried in a grocery store. The snow mounds were huge from the plows clearing the lots. We played on that hill till the end of March before we found out there was a vehicle under there!

I was an eight year old in Cleveland and will never forget this storm. I remember trying to help my dad shovel the driveway. The snow was so high that I couldn't throw the snow over the snow piles. I was just making more work for my dad. The power then went out and we had to go stay with my great aunt for several days.

Brings back lots of memories. I remember opening the front door, and seeing a 2 inch gap at the top of the door frame with light shining through. Had to drop from the second floor bedroom window, and shovel down. Left Providence, RI. a few months later.

For me, I was a child during this one. It was, without a doubt, the best winter of my life. I lived in the country in Michigan. For over a month, we had 1 or 2 days of school a week. There was enough snow that we would climb to the top of our 2 story house, and jump off into a drift. We made snow tunnels all over our yard. Now? It’s a bit different.

This storm also happened in Indiana we had "pahked cahs", too. And on top of all the snow, the wind literally howled for two days straight blowing the snow everywhere. I'll never forget that wind. I was shut up in the house for four days, too and we were down to making a meal out of things that really didn't go too well together, but we lived to tell about it. One very sad thing that happened involved two dogs who normally didn't leave their fenced backyard. Well, the snow drifted so high that they could just walk right over it. When they showed up at my front door I had no idea who they were but knew they needed help so I let them into the garage and fed them and got some beds made for them. I was in for the long haul. They stayed the night but the next day they made it very clear that they wanted out. I stewed around about it and finally let them out. About an hour later their mom showed up at the door and I told her the story. They were Star and Shiner and they were 12 year old littermates who had never been out of their yard before. We exchanged numbers and I told her I'd let her know if I found them. I didn't hear anything so a week or so later I called her. She said she found one still alive, but the other one was found, deceased, about two miles from home. It broke my heart. What a sad ending. This same video could be used in a whole lot of places. Just change the names of the cities involved and you've got it.

I was 9 and I still remember that storm. I just finally got rid of the last bit last week 😂😂🤣

STORM LARRY--Feb. 6, 1978 Storm Larry was a rare category 5 winter blizzard which had sustained winds of 86mph with gusts up to 111mph. We rode it out in Coventry, CT in our country home; I was 9 months pregnant. Mom had flown up from Florida for my first child's birth. By noon of Feb. 6 most workers had been sent home. My husband closed down the plant and left work last in our old car with threadbare tires to head the 30 miles home in a whiteout. Of course there were no cell phones to keep in touch back then. Soon we lost our phone and electric and Mom panicked--wanted to hike 100' across the street to the neighbor's house where lights could barely be seen. I explained "whiteout" to my Mom and wouldn't let her leave the house, fearing for the life of anybody outside--people have frozen to death just feet from their homes, blinded and lost in such weather. The snow accumulation and winds were terrifying as our 200-year-old house groaned like an old dog. Occasionally something (branches?) would hit the house. Snow blew in keyholes and door frames, obscured all landmarks, and iced the windows till we couldn't see out at all. Would the roof hold? Would falling branches and the snow/ice load cave in the roof or blow out a window? We started stocking food, water and blankets in the basement. By nightfall, not knowing where my husband was five hours after leaving work, I had dug our old CB out of the closet and chipped the ice off an upstairs window to jury rig an antenna. We got it up and working just when a loud stomping on the front porch drew us downstairs. With difficulty, we got the door open and I couldn't recognize my husband, flocked head-to-foot with ice. He had driven half way home to be blocked by a stalled car; forced to abandon our trusty old vehicle, he started walking backward down Rt. 6 in hurricane-level winds, fearing that he might get lost because he couldn't make out the edges of the road--not even guard rails and telephone poles. A guy in a Jeep, following a snow plow, saw him and slowed down enough for him to jump in. He got him to Willimantic (@ 7 miles from home), maybe saving his life. My husband had to walk from there. That night Gov. Grasso declared a three-day road closure for CT. You needed state permission to be out in a car--and a snow-plow escort. Fortunately, I didn't deliver for another week. About 100 people died, 4,500 were injured; the full-moon created a huge storm surge that took out a lot of coastal homes; thousands of cars were abandoned and towed to wherever they could be put out of the way of plow crews; nobody had any idea where all the cars were, or who they belonged to and it took weeks for many to find their vehicles. Nobody could calculate local snowfall because howling winds built huge snow banks, altering the landscape beyond recognition and ripping out wind gauges or freezing them solid. I'll never forget a heart-wrenching story of an old woman on the third floor of an apartment building across the street from the hospital. The phone, electric heat and elevator were out and she was too crippled to manage the steps. They found her frozen to death in her chair, hugging a blanketed cage with her pet bird in it. The warmth of her body had saved her canary.

I remember this storm. We got the day off from work, it seemed like I shoveled for two days. We didn't get paid for the time off from work, but we didn't care. People were all outside talking to each other...People should do more of that today!! .Even as an adult, I still loved it.., I think snow is beautiful. Growing up in the northeast, I was used to this..We never lost power in those days, like we do now..

I will never forget this year. My firstborn was born on February 7th. There was snow up to my waist as the police took me to St Joseph on lake shore drive. I was from Arkansas and I had never seen that much snow in my life. Unforgetable!!

It wasn't just a New England event, we got that storm in northeast Ohio too.

Winters were pretty brutal in the US particularly in the 60s , 70s and. 80s

Loved it. No vehicles moved for a whole week. I've never smelled such clean fresh air.

I well remember this blizzard. I was at Norton Company and had Horus rehearsal that night. I was able to get there and an alto, Louise Harubin, made it too. We were the only ones in the church for a a few days. That was great as I had wanted to get to know her. Well I certainly did as we had the place to ourselves. Also the refrigerator had food. We found a couch in the ministers office and cuddled in this small space. We did not need much space and we were young and enjoying each other. I was one of the best times of my life. Nothing like the tenor and the alto soloist enjoying whole church to ourselves. Ever since I have always enjoyed blizzards but none like that one!

We took our wood burner to the basement to save the pipes. Ate garden food. Had pork, deer ,and beef in the freezer to eat. Ate and lived like kings.

I remember when Don Kent predicted flurries for that storm. Yeah, 47 inches of flurries in Bridgwater... Lol!

the roof of the Hartford Civic Center collapsed at night from the weight of the icy snow, this happened a couple hours after the UCONN basketball game so folks had left and nobody was injured. My dad was part of the reconstruction crew and they made large metal whale shaped forms sitting on flat bases from scrap metal from the roof as gifts for particular folks (The Center was home for the Hartford Whalers Hockey team) and my dad received one which I still own(a big hulky thing that holds the porch door open in summer). Meanwhile my husband and I were homebound with our first baby who had croup, the next day the police allowed folks to drive for emergencies and one local doc opened his doors and we brought the baby in to his office filled with croupy asthmatic kids . Memories.

Best storm ever, didn't have to go to school for at least a week

This is why I dream of a home on a self-sufficient farm, with propane or wood stoves, fireplaces and multi-tasking furnaces that will burn ANYTHING. The Denver 100 year Blizzard of 1982 was my first experience and thank God for gas appliances !

Thanks for posting...Man this brings back some good times...in 1978 i was just turning 17....had a 69 Mach 1..it was coverd in snow....Most of my friends had hot Rods...wide tires was not going anywhere ...the big Boats got around Ok.....But the 1978 Ford Pinto Statonwagon with the fake wood was Boss..it took a beaten.lol lol😀... I was out Partying in most of the Snow Strom....Had to carry shovels with you...lol..plus Beer,,,Red bud,....

I remember when this hit Chicago. It was a very fun time as a kid

Those of us in the Midwest also had a Blizzard of '78. I was 20 years old and living in Bowling Green Ohio, I was working the night of January 25 in a local pizza house. The 25th was my birthday and some friends came in for a meal and to give me my birthday presents, one of which was a small candle. By the time we closed and cleanup was finished it was 2 am. I drove home to my little apartment in heavy rain. By the time I showered and readied for bed, I heard the rain stop, I looked out the window and saw the rain had turned to snow. I woke up about 8 am and was cold, my furnace wasn't working. I went out to my phone to call the landlord to complain, but I couldn't see the phone number so I reached for the light. No electricity. The furnace hadn't wasn't broken after all. I got another blanket and went back to bed. At noon, I woke and got dressed and looked out the window, wow, lots of snow! I tried to go outside, but both my front and back doors were snowed shut. I could open the main door but the storm doors, which opened out, were blocked. I saw the people from another apartment in my house out shoveling and managed to get their attention, thankfully they dug out my door. In town we were only a few days without electric, I was blessed tho, that small candle I got for my birthday was the only candle I had. My family, 8 miles east of town went several weeks without electricity. Once electric was back on in town, my boss insisted on open the restaurant again, he sent the delivery drivers to get me because my car was still buried. By this time the National Guard was helping and we fed them until we used up supplies. Bread for sandwiches and lettuce for salads were used up quickly, but we had plenty of supplies to make pizzas. Little by little our town came back to life. I remember driving down Main Street, one lane open in each direction with the middle of the street filled with snow, it was like driving in a tunnel, was way over our heads.

This is why You Always Prepare! God Bless.

Lived in Ohio in '78 and it hit us hard too! School was closed for 2 weeks! Money making blizzard coz me and my best friend went thru the neighborhood shoveling people's sidewalks and driveways. 💵 A lot of people had to shovel their cars out of the snow that were parked on the streets. The '78 blizzard was a dream come true for kids and a nightmare for adults.

I lived through this storm in CT. I was stranded for 3 days. I was 18 and we all survived, though a lot of people froze to death.

I was 17 years old and living in Jersey City, NJ when this storm hit. I can tell you, NYC (also considered part of New England) got hit pretty bad. I remember, my brother had gone into Manhattan that morning because he had just graduated from college and had a job interview at WABC-TV and he didn't want to miss it. Their offices were all the way up near Columbus Circle. He barely made it home but he got the job.

I was working for Conrail as a locomotive engineer out of Grand Central Terminal in NYC. And when I finished my run called the crew dispatcher to mark back up on the spare board. I was told I was on duty till God knew when because the states had declared an emergency and no one could get home and no one could get to work. I wound up with 146 hours on duty, the most I ever worked in one stretch. On the third day I was running 6 M-2's to New Haven, Ct. And remember pulling into Rye, NY and woke up to find several inches of fresh snow on the track and when I opened the cab door only the emergency lights were on. I found the conductor talking to some passengers and asked what happened. He said I tried to wake you up but you were out like a light, it was several hours after I arrived at Rye. Called Rye tower and got an ok to continue on my trip. And it turned out to be an interesting 7 days in a row I worked.

I was thirteen. Living in Foxboro mass. What a ball. Out of school for two weeks and the school roof caved in. Went to town in a friend's dog sled. His parents raised and raced sled dogs. We were getting groceries and cigarettes for everyone in my neighborhood. Took six days to shovel out my driveway.

I was 20 years old and got stuck at my grandparent's house with no weed for over a week. I thought I was going to go crazy.

Great white outs; I was driving a 1970 Scout. Pulling people out of snow banks..

The Blizzard of 1978 started on my 13th birthday. I was a paperboy and delivered that day and the next. If the distributor dropped off my newspapers in my driveway, I delivered them. I think they stopped dropping them off on the third day, but I'm not sure. I remember crawling up and down huge snow drifts to get to people's doors. My customers were amazed. I got great tips that week. :)

Three strange men were stranded at my home while dad was out of town on business. We were all safe but this would make a great horror movie if they were not good men.

I was 9 years old and that storm was the best time of my life! We lived on a dead end street , full of kids! We dug so many tunnels in that snow! Made forts! We would play outside for hours til our feet were frozen , then come in and mom would make hot cocoa and put our feet in the warm oven! Yup, in the oven 😂

Folks in 78 had common sense. Can u imagine the deaths today 2019 just from folks trying to go to McDonald's?

I was a junior in high school Mansfield, MA getting my drivers license. Route 95 was in our back yard. Cars abandoned everywhere.

I was only 7 yrs old...near Cleveland, Ohio. I'll never forget this storm! We were off school for weeks & could barely get out of our house... the drifts were about 10 ft tall!!! I'm not even exaggerating.

I can't believe I stumbled onto this documentary! I lived through the Blizzard of '78. I was 9 years old then and living off of 90th ave in Woodhaven, NY. I remember the 1st day after the blizzard had subsided. I woke up early and peeked through the drapes in my room which happened to be in the front of the house (my bedroom was once a porch, that was converted into a bedroom. It had a total of 7 windows in all) and immediately noticed there was snow everywhere. I just couldn't assess how much, other than everything outside was white! So I immediately put on my snow playing clothes and headed downstairs toward the front door. I opened the door and looked through the screen door. At this very moment, I realized that something was definitely wrong. I turned towards the stairs and yelled for my mother. "Mom! where did all the cars go?!!". I don't think I was able to push the screen door open with the snow piled up against it, so I just looked through the screen in complete amazement of what 6'+ of snow looked like. Thank God I was only a kid then and didn't have to worry about digging out my car to go to work. :) Btw, I love the comment the elder woman made at 5:47 about how people were skiing down the street on top of parked cars! :)

I was stuck in a large office building alone with 10 painting contractors who stayed to long to get out. I was a security guard who had to stay because my replacement couldn’t get to work. Everyone else were let out early. It was three days before a plow showed up. One of the painters car was struck by the plow trying to get to us. It was completely covered with snow and couldn’t be seen. It was kind of funny when the plow driver told us about a station wagon he hit. We lived off the vending machines until our money ran out

Here in central Indiana it snowed for 3 days straight and the snow went horizontal past my apartment windows. The wind chill was 30 below and I got snowed in without much food because they did not know it was going to be as bad as it turned out. They banned all vehicles out on the roads except rescue, fire, and police. And snow mobiles whizzed up and down Shadeland Ave. And after it stopped the snow didn't melt completely until almost April 1978. It was terrifying. Most of us had rear wheel drive cars back then and I had a 1972 Camaro which was useless, no traction at all. Our city had no organized snow removal or salting which compounded the disaster. Most people were on their own back in their neighborhoods. The streets were awful with frozen ruts and when you got ready to make a turn your tires were knocked back and forth in these ruts.

I remember this blizzard...we had 17 ft snowdrifts on the road. We lived in Carroll County, MD. It was nuts. No school for weeks. I don't remember if we had enough food but the pipes froze. It was BAD. TY for posting. I have fond memories of sled riding with my siblings everyday for weeks.

I was 17. South East Indiana.....Shoveled Snow for days.....I was always out in the Weather ....And loved it...Remember driving over to Harrison Ohio One night of the Snow Storm In a military Jeep to pick up some Smoke lol lol....it was Dry Man....I🤔🤔🤔 could have been around Conn.....lol lol😀....good Old Days...Back when Kids was Hard WORKING.....

From studying weather history, New England got hammered in the 70's not only with this but another blizzard in the same decade (not as much snow but very debilitating to the region) and a major ice storm. My 4th grade teacher in Alabama talked of her son who got trapped in Boston (where his first job after college was) in the late-70's from a severe ice storm. "We had to try where we PAHHKED AHR CAHR." I love to hear New Englanders, especially Bostonians speak.

A total of 3weeks off from school. Two weeks from the storm, then feb. Vacation right after the 2 weeks. So sad to go back.

I had just turned 6 years old 2 weeks before the Blizzard of 78. It is one of my most fondest childhood memories. ⛄❄⛄❄⛄

Was 21 yrs. of age, close to the coast in southern N.H. right on Mass. border. With approx. 20 inches of snow already down and a gale force wind howling in all directions a room mate and I decided to chance the 1.5 mile walk to a locally owned variety store where we knew the owners , we also knew they lived up over the store and would probably receive us regardless if the store was closed or not. Dressed in plenty of warm wool layers and snowmobile suits , donning ski goggles and poles we set out. What saved our asses was the side of the road cable and the STILL working , yellow flashing light where our one and only turn was . Absolutely nothing but stranded cars along the roadway, and that cable at edge of road that kept us going in the right direction. You couldn't see more ,than perhaps,ten feet in front of you and we were certainly worried about finding that only turn. About 1.5 - 2 hrs. into our crazy adventure we lucked out and saw the blinking light ...we were almost directly under it and could have missed it by a mere few feet...swinging wildly , but still blinking....relief set in and we only another few hundred yards to go. The store was actually open and when we walked in the couple who owned it looked at us like the fools we were. " What are you doing here, how the hell did you get here ? " was all the kept asking. Of course , 21 yr. old bravado took over as we laughed about our adventurous last couple hrs. out in the blizzard. After filling a knapsack we'd toted along, with mostly beer of course, why else would two young guys head out in a blizzard. ? More beer ! In the light and warmth of the store we almost forgot, we still need to walk back home , this isn't over yet. Finding our only turn on the way back was of course far easier due to the fact it was only a few hundred yards away..and that damn light was still working ! I'm sure it went down at some point because all electricity eventually went out but we had luck on our side again. It was a longer walk back, many more inches of snow had fallen by now and the plan to follow our first troughs we'd plowed through getting to the store were by now filled in from the wind ....we joked, at least we have beer, but no..we realized any stopped motion could put us in the wrong direction once we started off again so we never stopped ...we walked into cars and occasionally the road cable, but finally managed our destination ...approx. 2,5 hrs to get back . I think if we had lived 20-30 miles further south and attempted this ...we might never have made it . I still have a collection of the Boston newspaper coverage of this storm. Since 1978 I've seen worse flooding, larger snowfall amounts and worse , but much briefer, blizzards conditions....I've yet to see them all together again quite like the blizzard of 78 ...cheers !

Cool me too, Wisconsin, the snow in driveway was up to my chest, I was 10.

The Snow was half way up the caaaaaz lol

I did Mescaline for 2 days and was jumping off 3 story buildings into huge snow piles In Medford Mass. Just had a total blast. I was a Senior at the Voc. Tripping and no School ? What more could you ask for at 17 years old. Those were very good times.

My husband was a highway commissioner in 78. We live at the end of a 1/2 mile lane. The equipment to plow the roads was stored on our property. One of the men who worked for the township to plow the roads, trying to get to our house drove his truck until he couldn't get any farther. He began to walk towards our house until he couldn't walk. He began to crawl over the top of the snow. He finally got to our house after crawling for a 1/4 mile. The snow along the sides of the roads after it was plowed was over 6 feet high.

Just a few weeks earlier, we had a storm that hit Connecticut pretty badly. I remember waking up, in the middle of the night, to what sounded like a massive explosion. Later that morning, we heard news of Hartford Civic Center's roof collapse, the cause of that sonic blast. And then this storm hit, which was fun for us kids because we could spend our days cross-country skiing and snowmobiling to the grocery store to bring supplies to our neighbors.

I well remember the blizzard, I was 6 and had a blast! My dad had a dodge truck that was lifted so high we needed a step stool to get in it, when the police closed the roads he was the only one they let through 😂. We were in central Ky....oh the memories

Out of school for a month, a stray yellow lab (Yeller, my best friend ) followed me home from sledding at the Helfrich Park Golf course, that storm was magical to us kids, Evansville, Indiana

We lived in Delaware Ohio just north of Columbus. My dad had a heart attack 2 days before the storm hit. My Mom called me and said for me to get my butt home and I put tire chains on my '65 Chevy Malibu and went home. I drove my Mom back and forth to University Hospital in Columbus every day to see my Dad. We didn't get the same amount of snow as the far east did but what we did get was pretty significant. I have always been kind of amazed that we were able to get through to the hospital in that time. My little piece of junk Chevy Malibu and the snow plows were the only things on the road for at least the first 3 days after the storm. What a memory.

I was 8 yrs old and it was the first time I had seen a bull dozer used to clear the streets due to the 15 to 20 ft drifts!

I have such clear memories of this as a kid and school closing! It definitely affected us severely in NE Ohio.

I was 12 then,,Worcester mass,,,I will never forget how the neighborhood came together and helped each other thru it all,,

I'll never forget this storm!! I'm from southern Connecticut and we lived on long island sound. My dad picked me up early from school and we got stuck a few houses down from our driveway!! The snow came down so fast, we bailed. The snow was up to the windows! I was a kid so it was fabulous to go sledding and skiing while school was closed!! Yay snow days of old!🌬❄⛄

You had to have been there to know that 78 was the worst.

The most memorable storm I've experienced. I had just moved in my new apt here in CT, no TV, no phone, nothing. I think I spent most of my time looking out the window. It truly was quite the sight. Definitely something I'll never forget. Thanks for posting such a memorable time for the people who survived through it and for the ones who weren't around to experience.

I was in the 8th grade when this hit-I remember opening the front door and a huge wall of snow was blocking the door-Turned to my mom and saying and I quote " Mom,I don't think there's school today" my moms response GO BACK TO BED !!!

We live in Connecticut, our CIVIC CENTER in Hartford collapsed literally 2 hours after a basketball game finished.CRAZY!

Is the letter "R" not allowed in Boston??

First time i saw thundersnow and lightening. My friend and i was headed down mainstreet and thought it was a high tension wire that fell. Big burley truck drivers were coming in where my sister worked scared to death. Said they thought it was the end of the world. I was pregnant.Never forget.

I was in 10th grade when this hit. We got three days off of school here in northeastern Ohio. Man we had a blast!

This snow turned New England into a Winter Wonderland Beautiful!

Riding snow mobile's everywhere. On the streets and highways looking for people to rescue. Making food runs to the store to help people out. A week of snow forts, snow tunnels and snowball fights It was a blast! Lots of shoveling and an extra week of school to make up for it.

I was 5. I was having a ball.

I graduated high school in 1978, and I loved not having school for several days!! I felt so snug and safe with my family, making do with what we had in the house, lots of pancake suppers watching TV and listening to the radio. Sure do wish that we could have a couple of good Winters like that one again!!🙂🙂💞💞✝️⚜️

Lived in central Illinois in 78. I was 8 years old. Lived on a farm and everything was drifted over. Grandparents house had drifts to 2 story windows. We had drifts over roof in our ranch style home. We had pheasants in the evergreens around our house because of the cold wind and deep snow.

I lived in Battle Creek, mi in 78. Luckily the night before, I went food shopping. Next day, no one was going anywhere, except snowmobiles. Took 3 days before streets were passable.

It was a nasty storm. I was prepared though. Plenty of food, wood for the stove and the shovels were inside. My house on the north east side was totally covered. The chimney was on that side so it was the only thing that could be seen. The south west side of the house had sliding doors. The wood stove was in that room. I cracked the doors open so some heat would melt the snow to keep an exit open. I also shoveled an opening there. When the snow finally stopped, the roads were closed to everything except snow plows. Luckily, my brother worked for the city plowing. He called me and asked how things were at my house. I told him that we were totally snowed in. He didn't believe me until he could not find my house. He finally made his way to our front door and took us out of the house. They thought it may get crushed with all of the snow. A snow drift had covered my house with 8 feet of snow. It took 4 men and 2 trucks to to open the drift up and get the snow off of the roof. They plowed around the whole house about 10 feet then out to the street. It was a bad storm but we did survive.

Wow I remember that I was stationed in the Marine Corps in Washington DC… thanks for putting this together!👍🏽🇺🇸

I damn sure remember this, because I was in Basic Training at Ft Knox, and they got like 28-30 inches there! I from Ky anyway, Lexington, but just about all of Ky got hit hard that year! I was 17 years old when I went into Basic and I turned 18 on the 26th of February! That blizzard didn’t slow our Drill Sargents down any, they had us out trudging around in that stuff!

I was just 7 years old, after the storm had passed I walk out from the side entrance door the 8 steps were covered in snow as I started to make my way down the driveway a long metal rod sprung up and hit my leg.... I realized I was standing on my dad's car it was the antenna!!!

I was 12 and walked outside with my father at the peak of the storm that night. He said “take a good look and remember this, you might never see this again in your lifetime”.

Wow, I was 18 yrs old, we lived on the coast and we had to evacuate to relatives and our cars were locked under frozen sea water. It was a memorable storm. 🙏

I was ten years old when this hit New Jersey and still remember going outside and we couldn't even walk.We were out of school for a week and we played tackle football everyday once we got some areas reduced to where we could run a little.I'm fifty two now and hate the snow but I loved it back then LOL !!!

We were in Ohio when this happened, I was young, will never forget, MY Brother was born the night of the blizzard, MY parents adopted him, his Mother was lifeflighted that night to the Hospital.

The Blizzard of 78.I live in Cincinnati the weatherman on the 11:00 pm news couldn't believed the pressure was dropping fast he said holy cow the pressure drop so low that he said something happening. That the first time we experience a Blizzard in the Ohio River Valley Region. My car tires were frozen to the driveway. I worked at A papermill. Some of the men worked 30 hours g Keeping the Plant Running. I went to worked the next day I worked over busting coal loose to keep the boiler running in the Power House. I was picking that coal loose. I was cold. But I was determined to bust that coal we had big torches heating the coal car. Around 9:30 pm I asked my supervisor is it alright to walk to the breakroom to get some coffee. It was some winter 77 78 79 80. March 4th 78 I got married it was 16° degrees with a wind chill of 25° below Zero. We left for our honey moon. We went to the Smokey Mountains. It was 60° in Gatlinburg. When we left the Temp was 72°. But back up here in the north it was a lot warmer than it was when we left we had over 2& a half feet of snow. That was a Winter to remember.

I was 7 and lived in Scituate Mass. When my mom and I could finally get out of the house, we walked the waterfront and saw all the destroyed homes. It was at that moment, I knew never to live that close to the ocean.

January of 1978 was horrible for us in southeast Iowa as well. We had so much snow dumped on us then, my Grandma was dying in her home. She had a blood clot in her leg, that went to her heart and ended up killing her. The snow was piled so high, and they had a hard time getting her out of her home. I’ll never forget that dreadful day, January 17th, 1978.

I was 6-yrs-old and remember playing with my Six Million Dollar Man action figure in the kitchen while it was snowing like crazy outside.

That storm didn't start at night, it started around 2:00pm in the after noon. I was still in school for roughly an hour by the time we got out at 3:00pm. The snow was already about 6 inches deep by the time I got back home from the bus. This was in the Attleborough area of Massachusetts. My mother called after dark and spoke on the phone to my father saying her car was stuck in the snow about 2 miles away from home, it could not go any further. He told her there was a school near by to where she was calling from a phone booth. He told her to go there because it was open as a shelter. Many shelters were opening because the storm was getting really bad at only 4 hours in. Roughly an hour or so after the call my mother came bursting through the back door of the house completely covered in snow and breathing really hard as she was exhausted! My sister and I were excited to see her as she was normally home when we got out of school. My father yelled at her and said she was stupid for risking herself in the storm like that. It would have only been a few days in the shelter and he would come out and get her then. I felt sorry for my mother because Dad yelled at her in a very angry manner. I understand what he meant, but all she wanted was to be home. Later on I learned that a number of people perished in the snow trying to do just what she did. Some died in their cars. We didn't have power for about 3 days. When I finally got back to school at least a week later I learned that many other families still had no power. Some of the kids were complaining they hadn't taken a hot bath or shower in at least a week. Some didn't get their power back for about 3 weeks. Our house made it through the storm just fine. Other houses weren't so lucky. Roofs caved in due to the weight of the snow, the wind tore off parts of some roofs or shingles on the house. Some trees blew down and damaged houses, cars. It was such a mess. After the storm ended, my neighborhood was totally silent! No traffic what so ever, there was just too much snow for ordinary cars to drive through. It was eerie. Sometimes you could only hear the sound of shovels scraping in the snow. Man made mounds of snow piled higher and higher on the edges of driveways. Dad couldn't get out of the back door of the house after the storm. The snow drifts were so high they covered the whole door and we couldn't see out of the back windows of the first floor at all. The drifts were about 10 feet tall there. Dad had to go out of the front door because the drifts weren't so high on that side of the house. He sure had a lot of shoveling to do. It was the craziest snow storm I can remember.

I was stationed at Pease AFB in Portsmouth, NH during the blizzard. We got around on snowmobiles for days.

This was a blast. I was in college at the time and the next day we went sledding.

The Blizzard of 78 was an amazing weather event. The city of Providence was inaccessible from all directions and I -95 was clogged with cars north to the the Mass. state line and south to East Greenwich. The federal gov't had called in C5a transports filled with snow removal equipment and tow trucks to clear the roads. The state of Rhode Island was all but closed down for a week. 55 inches of snow fell in Woonsocket RI. Amazing. .

I was about 16 and had to dig a trench to the barn to feed the cattle every day, we were isolated here in northern KY for almost a month!

This snowstorm by the way started the day after my birthday which i thought was very special I was born feb.4,1972 so I was just turning 6 in Exeter,NH at that time. Wow.

I was living in Houston at the time. We were not affected at all. Being 19 y.o. I remember watching the evening news and was shocked.