Blizzard of ’78 still fresh in people’s minds
She saved the newspapers that give a glimpse of the nor'easter 40 years ago today. The storm, she said, was as memorable to her as the assassination of President
"I kept it because it was an historical event," Brown, a part-time employee of the
The clippings, yellowed with age, show roads impassable with snow and roofs of cars peeking out of snow drifts.
According to statistics published at the time, 27.1 inches of snow fell in
Salem received 26 inches in 26 hours from the powerful, slow-moving storm, according to
A portion of the
But the Blizzard of '78 was also a killer.
The storm reportedly killed 54 people in
Five of those who died did so at sea: the captain and crew of the pilot boat Can Do out of
Brown, 75, is a longtime
"Cars were buried. Homes were buried," she said. "People were trying to rescue people from their cars. I don't remember anything like that afterwards."
Though there were reports of a storm coming, the blizzard seemed to catch folks, especially afternoon commuters, off guard.
Along an eight-mile stretch of
For the rest of the week, no one was allowed to drive, and people had to walk or cross-country ski to get around.
A forecaster's perspective
In a written account, having gone through all the data for the storm, climatologist
"You had to live through it to experience the vibrant forces that it produced," Francis said.
Early computer models forecasted a massive, rapid developing storm along the
"On the 6th, the snow commenced and raised havoc with the evening commutes as the massive storm system kept pumping warm moisture-ladened air into the highest reaches of the atmosphere," Francis wrote.
"Once the snow began, its intensity increased significantly," he wrote. "The hourly snowfall amounts were excessive, as much as three inches per hour in some locations. The buffeting northeast winds swirled the snow into massive drifts. The snow plows were not able to cope with the serious rapid accumulations."
The storm also coincided with high "spring tides," causing a 700-mile-long fetch over the ocean to form to the east. Wave heights from this could be conservatively calculated at 40 feet, Francis said.
Tragedy at sea
When the tankers Global Hope foundered on
And despite warnings from the
After midnight, the Can Do issued a mayday distress signal. Reports from ham radio operators in touch with the boat's captain and crew describe an increasingly desperate crew fighting hypothermia and injuries after the wind and waves smashed the Can Do's windshield.
In the days following, the bodies of the crew washed up along the
The tragedy was later captured in the best-selling novel, "Ten Hours Until Dawn" by
"The fellow at the
Fuller, one of the crew members, was Silva's brother-in-law, and his body was recovered on a beach in
As for the Global Hope, it became wedged on
Seawall destroyed
At high tide at about
"Windows were indeed breaking, and I remember one huge swell where large rocks/boulders broke through the exterior door to the patio and smashed a
Then, she noticed the seawall to her and her husband's home was gone. Her husband tried to drill holes in the floor to let the water out, but the water came in so fast, he started to tear up the floorboards.
"The next day was a beautiful clear day," Boylan wrote. Friends came over to help them clean up. "We pulled up the water-soaked carpeting and boarded up windows."
With no flood insurance, it took months to replace the seawall and repair the damage. Stunned and sickened by what happened, she took no photos of from that day.
First day in the
One of the thousands of
He took his oath of enlistment in the
Borge, who had already spent four years in the
With about a foot of snow on the ground, Borge tried to get to
So, Borge headed to
After getting a new uniform, he spent that night in five-ton troop carrier transporting doctors, nurses and workers to hospitals. They used 10-foot poles to probe the snow from the truck's tailgate for trunks, roofs and hoods to stand on. He recalled carrying a pregnant woman over cars and into the back of the truck.
Walking to work
"I don't think anybody ever realized that they were going to see this much and what was going to happen," Brown, of
In
But there was a silver lining to the driving ban, which forced folks to walk everywhere.
At the time, Brown was a waitress at the former Ocean Delight restaurant on
"I made a ton of money," Brown said. "Of course, two to
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