The Blizzard of 1978
Washington Post Jan 21 1978:
Six-foot drifts driven by 50-mile winds piled up in Manhattan today and the worst snow-storm to hit the Northeast in nine years virtually closed down Boston and played havoc along the entire Eastern Seaboard.
The storm's icy tentacles reached as far west as Kentucky and Ohio, blanketing Cincinnati under a record 16 inches of snow within 24 hours. It was the East's third snowstorm in eight days. New York Mayor Edward Koch declared his first snow emergency. The city's airports were closed as crews labored to clear the runways of dangerous drifts.
Amtrak's Metroliner service had to be shut down lest the air intakes on the fast trains' undercarriages become clogged with snow.
Thanks to 225 plows, the New Jersey Turnpike was open - under a 35 mph speed limit - for anyone, as a turnpike official put it, "stupid enough to drive."
Unlike the storm of 1969, this one did not catch large numbers of people on the roads or at the airports.
If this city was coping reasonably well with 2,500 workers and 1,100 vehicles on storm duty, up north in Buffalo a note of amusement was heard.
The city that became synonymous with snowdrifts and subzero weather last winter, when it was under a seemingly perpetual blizzard , has been having a mild winter.
"We are sypmathetic with the rest of the nation, but it's nice to have company. We're glad we're no longer the only place people turn to for reports of bad weather," said Charles Poth, assistant to Buffalo's mayor.
On the other hand, in Oswego, N.Y., on Lake Ontario, Mayor John Fitzgibbons said 22 inches of snow was expected today and tonight on top of the 52 inches that have fallen since Saturday.
Six-foot drifts driven by 50-mile winds piled up in Manhattan today and the worst snow-storm to hit the Northeast in nine years virtually closed down Boston and played havoc along the entire Eastern Seaboard.
The storm's icy tentacles reached as far west as Kentucky and Ohio, blanketing Cincinnati under a record 16 inches of snow within 24 hours. It was the East's third snowstorm in eight days. New York Mayor Edward Koch declared his first snow emergency. The city's airports were closed as crews labored to clear the runways of dangerous drifts.
Amtrak's Metroliner service had to be shut down lest the air intakes on the fast trains' undercarriages become clogged with snow.
Thanks to 225 plows, the New Jersey Turnpike was open - under a 35 mph speed limit - for anyone, as a turnpike official put it, "stupid enough to drive."
Unlike the storm of 1969, this one did not catch large numbers of people on the roads or at the airports.
If this city was coping reasonably well with 2,500 workers and 1,100 vehicles on storm duty, up north in Buffalo a note of amusement was heard.
The city that became synonymous with snowdrifts and subzero weather last winter, when it was under a seemingly perpetual blizzard , has been having a mild winter.
"We are sypmathetic with the rest of the nation, but it's nice to have company. We're glad we're no longer the only place people turn to for reports of bad weather," said Charles Poth, assistant to Buffalo's mayor.
On the other hand, in Oswego, N.Y., on Lake Ontario, Mayor John Fitzgibbons said 22 inches of snow was expected today and tonight on top of the 52 inches that have fallen since Saturday.
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