Every year in the first week of February the topic of the famous Blizzard of 1978 is again in the news. The sheer intensity of the storm caught meteorologists by surprise, leaving people, especially motorists, unprepared. Many people were stranded in cars. Route 128 was like a parking lot buried in snow (photo of route 128 after the blizzard). If a storm like this one happened today, we would be more prepared because of better technology and communication. Massachusetts got anywhere from 2-4 feet of snow along with hurricane-force gusts and major coastal flooding. It not only ranked as one of the top storms of the 20th Century in southern New England but as one of the top storms in recorded history, dating back to Colonial Times.
At the time, I was working as a nurse’s aide at Reservoir Nursing home, a 120-bed facility in Waltham, MA. I got to work OK, but then got stranded at work for 3 days. We had to do double shifts, two shifts on and one shift off. We slept in the basement during our off shifts. There was no way for people to get to work. Roads were closed and people were stranded all over the state. Many people died because they were stranded in their cars. Finally, after 3 days, I was able to get home on the back of a National Guard snowmobile. The National Guard brought fresh staff so that those of us who got stuck during the storm could get home.
I was so jealous of the people who were stuck at home because people got time off, and there were lots of blizzard parties in the neighborhood. But on the bright side, I did get a really big paycheck that week. Where were you during the Blizzard of ’78?
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