The Blizzard of 1978
January 26th, 2013 at 1:25 am by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather
<–click map to enlarge. Today is Blizzard Anniversary Day (35th anniversary!). The Blizzard of 1978 ranks as the #1 snowstorm ever for Grand Rapids and much of Lower Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. The barometer reading of 28.28″ in Cleveland still ranks as the lowest non-hurricane barometer reading in U.S. history. Sarnia, Ontario reported a barometer of 28.21″ and Grand Rapids also set a record barometer reading 28.68″. Grand Rapids had 15″ of snow in about 15 hours (19.2 total). Muskegon picked up 52″ of snow in 4 days. The Traverse City area had up to 28″. Houghton Lake and Indianapolis had over 15″ of snow and Lansing recorded over 19″. South Bend recorded a four-day total of 36″. Wind gusts of 42 mph blew the snow off roofs (a good thing). Wind gusts in Ohio topped 80 mph. The storm hit on a Wednesday Night, and many schools didn’t reopen until the following Monday. The heavy snow started shortly after 10 PM on 1/25. I measured a snow drift 14-feet high. Drifts in Ohio reached 20-feet. The entire Ohio turnpike was closed as was most of I-75 through Lower Michigan and Ohio. All air and rail service came to a halt. I was at the TV station for 3 days without leaving. One news anchor came to work on a snowmobile. For you weather junkies…this storm deepened 40 millibars in 24-hours – we call that “bombogenesis”. Seventy deaths were blamed on the storm, including 51 in Ohio. At least 22 people in Ohio died outside while struggling through the blizzard. Another 13 people were found dead in stuck cars, and 13 died in unheated homes. The National Guard were called out in Michigan and Ohio and the University of Michigan closed for the first time in 140 years. Over 125.000 vehicles were abandoned in the storm. It took 3 to 5 days to move the abandoned cars and open the expressways. After this, we had the coldest February ever in G.R. and the 5th coldest March. Snow piles from the storm lingered into April. Read more about the storm here in Michigan, in Ohio, cool pictures and more here. Here’s the governor of Ohio’s voice with a little film. Here’s some eyewitness accounts from West Michigan and video of a newscast from Cleveland. Mark sent a link to pics. from Breckenridge. Here’s write-up on the storm from the NWS in Detroit. Leave a comment if you have a memory of the big storm. Here’s Local Snowfall Amounts from the GRR NWS. This thread has been moved up from last year. Also, here’s TIME MAGAZINE’S top ten blizzards of all time. New comments for 2013 start at #36.
FIRST. bill you snow nuts are crazy. lets face it this winter is a huge BUST! we have had like 5 inches of snow here in wyoming. we still keep the kids home though when WOOD forecasts snow. bill when is it going to storm next and when will we see our first tornado. i am hoping for many tornados, floods, 100s and severe storms every day, who am i kidding, it will prolly be in the 60s again like last summer, maybe even some frost. BLAH! master and i are tired of it all.
I’m fairly new here. And one thing is for certain,fixxxerwrist is one nut case. He’s real good at showing people how “nuts” he is. How amusing!!
I’m fairly sure fixxxerswrist is another of Indy’s alter ego accounts. I think that is number 5.
And you would be right joe.
If you compared Fixxers brain to Forest Gumps, it would look like a BB in a Box Car
I happen to know for a FACT….that there can be only one INDY
Bill, I remember this storm like it was yesterday. I was eight years old at the time and living in Buchanan, MI (near the Michigan-Indiana state line). We couldn’t open our front door due to the snow having drifted in front of it all the way up to the roof. I still have pictures of my little brother and I standing in the driveway with snow up to our chins (that was where it hadn’t even drifted). We had cabin fever because it was so cold that you couldn’t stay outside for more than a couple of minutes. Looking at this winter I guess one could say, “they just don’t make ‘em like they used to!”
I remember it well, Bill. The neighbor had the only snowmobile and he was stranded in Lansing. We live in rural Clarksville so he called me and my buddy and I walked to his house and spent the next 2 days running that old ski-doo elan to town and kept about 30 neighbors supplied with essentials.We were snowed in 7 days and the county buried 2 v-plows on our road. They then had to bring in BIG michigan loaders to clear side roads.Was certainly a once in a lifetime blizzard.
I was in the 8th grade at Lakewood public schools at the time. We did not have school for at least a week and a half as the roads kept drifting shut after they had been plowed. I remember it like it was just a couple of years ago.
I was 5 at the time. My older brothers were doing flips off the house roof into the drifts. I assume this blizzard was a N’or Easter?
That was an interesting time.
For both the 1967 and 1967 storms I lived in Bay City and of the two the in Bay City the 1967 storm was by far the worst. Both storms started on a Wednesday night and also with both there was no snow on the ground before the storms. In the 67 storm we were stranded in the house (in the city) for 5 days and being very near Saginaw bay with a NE wind the drifts were well over 10 feet and we could not get out of the front door of the house as it faced west and the snow blew off the roof of the house but at the same time the side door on the north side of the house we not only could get out of there was still grass showing on that side of the house but not too far away there was this huge 10 foot drift. We did not have school for the next week after that. In 78 my wife and me were in Ann Arbor on the 25th and we left AA around 6PM with light snow falling it was not too bad until we got just north of Flint and that’s when I 75 started to get bad and the wind was really picking up needless to say it was a long trip home. The next day I was to be at work at 6AM but when I got up at 5;30 We were in the mist of one of the worst thunder storms I have ever seen tons and I mean tons of thunder and lightning and winds of near 60MPH to boot needless to say I did not make it to work that day nor the next one either.
SlimJim
I remember it well…the drift in front of our house covered our entire front porch, so that we had to bust through it to find our driveway! We could literally walk off the roof of our garage! I walked with my brother through a field to get to the store, and thought we wouldn’t make it–the walk normally took 5 minutes, and ended up taking almost 1/2 hour. We walked home on West Main street, where the only traffic was plows and snowmobiles…off of school for a week! Good times!
Lived in Allendale in 1978…that was an incredible experience – lived on 64th street which was a north/south street and the drifts were so high it took loaders to finally dig us out. I remember snowmobiles coming around and supplying us with milk, etc. A fun time playing board games, having conversations, and enjoying my 4 at-home children. The storm arrived the day we arrived home from a Florida vacation – timing was good or we would have been stuck away from our home. A fascinating memory for my teen kids at the time.
I remember this blizzard as well. I was a new mom with a 4-month old baby. There was a small grocery store up the street from me and I needed to get some things, so I bundled the baby up inside my coat and walked to the store. It was cozy for both of us. The drifts were some of the largest that I had ever seen her in Michigan.
I remember that well! I drove from Wayne to East Lansing and 96 was closed at Brighton. The expressway was baracaded and the drifts were as high as the signs. You had to get off at Grand River Ave and drive that to Lansing. What a drive!
Just a baby that year so I guess I can’t blogg on this page!! I saw some good pics of snow over my house and above the trees from that storm!!!! INDYY
I was a senior in high school, living in Jenison. Nice looooooong weekend! I remember my step-dad having me help shovel the driveway because he “had to get to work”. We got the driveway shoveled, he took his impala and headed out of the garage – made it about 5 feet into the road, then of course I had to help him get it out of the snow! I remember a few days later watching those huge 20 foot V-plows they brought down from the UP, man they could move the snow!
I remember the blizzard of 1978 very well. My mom was the night supervisor at Muskegon General Hospital and had to go to work the night the storm came. My brother (18 at the time) and I (then 9) were home alone.
Obviously, the first shift couldn’t make it in to the hospital so my mom and her skeleton night shift had to maintain the patients the next day until the National Guard could get a few staff in to help. My mom was there working for THREE DAYS taking cat-naps, showering in the locker room & having only scrubs to change into.
Apparently at some point our phone wasn’t working at home because my mom had someone (National Guard??) come to our house on a snowmobile to make sure my brother & I were okay. We lived in a very rural area near Whitehall where our electricity (and only source of heat) would go out easily and there were no near-by neighbors to go to. But my brother (who is a great cook) & I were just fine and happy with a stocked pantry and working TV!
After three days, the National Guard brought my mom home from her endless shift at the hospital. She remembered a gallon of milk in her car she bought on the way to work “just in case” the weather got really bad. The hospital staff and the National Guard were making bids on my mom’s gallon of liquid gold!
It was a very memorable winter indeed.
I remember this storm like it was yesterday. I lived in Belmont, just south of Rockford in a moble home park. I think I may have some old pics of the front my our trailer with a snow drift about 6′ high, across our walkway to our front door.I couldn’t get the front or back door open, so I called one my neighbors and he dug the snow away from my back door so I could get out. It took hours to dig that drift out so we could get to the front door. Good thing I was young and in shape. Couldn’t do that today.
I was living in Macomb Co. at the time and NEVER saw a snow flake.
Gawd thats funny.
Bill, what was the date of the big storm in 1979 I was in the Army and missed it. My folks say that that storm was worst that than the 78 storm. Did it just last longers or did we have higher winds. Thanks for any reply
Guess I should google stuff before I ask silly questions. Here is a link to weather histoy http://www.crh.noaa.gov/grr/history/?m=1ry
I was in middle school. A friend and I went from house to house with a sled, taking orders, then walked a couple miles to Meijer (in Holland) (miraculously open!) and made about $50 in tips that day! Also remember hearing on WHTC the announcement, “anyone with a 4-wheel drive vehicle, please call Holland Hospital, they need help getting doctors and nurses in to work.”
I am the only East Coast blogger so far on the Blizzard of 78. I was on a flight from Washington DC to Islip NY to go to Grumman. I never made it. The Plane passed landing at Islip and went on to Albany NY. Then the airline ‘Bussed” Taxi us to Islip. We never made it to Islip. We spent a night in an office building, that the police opened, and then got a train into Grand Central Station in NY City. Had to walk, the electric trains were not running, to Penn Station. The Avenues in NY City did not have the sidewalks cleared so we had to walk in the Avenue. An amazing adventure to walk down the middle of an avenue without any vehicles not even in site and no one else. I could look up so many blocks and only see the corner traffic lights. Finally I caught a train to Washington DC.
We were in our twenties with two small children living outside of Zeeland. Our neighbor tried to get to the store for all of us in his snowmobile – the drifts were so high he couldnt get his machine through. Several guys teamed up and one would go so far and get stuck then another would go a few feet more. It took them 8 hours to get to Zeeland and back with supplies for all of us. We had a drift covering our front door I have a picture of my son sitting in the cave we dug to get out.
Ive never seen anything like that storm since – nothing even close. The wind blew drifts that were ten to fifteen feet high. Something to tell the grandchildren about. LOL
I remember the wind blowing so bad with the snow that we couldn’t see anything out of the Windows. It was Ike being in a whiteout inside the house. After things got plowed people put flags or orange balls on their car antennas so you could see them thru the snow tunnels at intersections. Again this year I’ll tell it… A guy told me that there was snow in the north facing ditches in the depths of the Allegan Forest still in July. Who knows.
I was in 11th grade at Zeeland, we had a nice long weekend off, and I now remember all the Orange balls on the antennas, This is the first time I have ever remembered that since….I think almost everyone in Zeeland had a ball on their car. Wow now I am thinking about all the snowmobiles I saw and there were hardly any 4wd trucks in Zeelland. What a memory.
I remember this storm well. I was driving truck at the time and had just loaded headed for California. The weather was crappy so I decided to park the truck at my house on the NE side near Knapp and Fuller and take off after the weather broke….well, needless to say I was snowbound for a week. At one point I had drifts reaching over the top of my trailer which was 13’6″ high. The county had to bring diesel fuel into me for my refrigeration unit on my trailer. I also tried walking to the store at the corner of Knapp & Fuller which was 6 blockc from my house. It took me almost an hour to do so because of the huge drifts. Workers at the store had been stranded there unable to go home. They did have coffee and snacks available to anybody that made it there.
Careful with that Topix link, I think they have an infected ad on it right now. My antivirus went insane blocking it from downloading.
I was a senior at Grand Valley at the time. We had a big physics exam on Thursday 01/26. I stayed the night at a friend who was also in my physics class so we could study together. We heard there was going to be a snow storm, but we didn’t know how bad.
Well, classes were cancelled that day. One of the roommates worked at the store at Lake Michigan and 48th, and a bunch of us waded through waste deep snow to go to the store. We bought a bunch of booze and took it back to the apartment. Along with the co-eds across the hall we were diving out the big picture window all night. In our underwear. The snow was several feet deep by then, and we were doing all kinds of back flips and head over heels stuff out the window. We would land in the snow and make our way back inside. We could hardly feel the coldness of the wind and snow. Talk about crazy.
I remember this storm very well. I was driving home from work in the evening in some fairly decent snow that was being blown about in the wind. The roads were not great and I didn’t see any plows out. I was grateful to get home as there appeared to be no let up of the snow or wind. The next morning was a shock as I looked out and couldn’t see anything but pitch white outside, everything and everyone was buried in. I lived in Old Orchard Apts at the time and I remember seeing snow drifts that came close to the 3rd floor balcony apartments. People were jumping off their balconies into these huge drifts and would disappear, only to tunnel out moments later on the ground. We were snowed in for several days, most people’s places of work were closed due to the storm. I had some friends who had a snowmobile and they came over with food and drinks, we partied as there was really nothing else to do. It was crazy, I have never seen anything like it before or since.
Tom, I lived in Old Orchard as well. My room mate had gotten up early in the AM to go to work. She went outside, came back in screaming she couldn’t find her car, a little Mustang. Her car was COMPLETELY buried in a drift!!
The only way to travel down 4 mile or 3 mile was by snowmobile or a 4WD truck! Sounds crazy but it sure was a good time!!!!
I lived at Old Orchard Apts. too. My car was 90% buried and I walked into work in the blizzard to WZZM, where I did the morning shift. Craig James lived in Cannonsburg and couldn’t get in – so I did every weather show morning, noon and night for nearly 3 days. I was supposed to be at a weather conference in Savannah GA. It was fantastic audience exposure. There were only 4 stations at the time and everyone was inside watching TV and getting news of the storm. After that point, EVERYONE in West Michigan knew who Bill Steffen was. One of our news anchors came to work on a snowmobile. We did a great job covering the news and weather during and after the storm. Every station employee who could got to work and everyone helped as best they could. I remember we helped a woman who was going into labor in rural Allegan County get medical assistance.
Bill,
I lived in Detroit and we got dump on as well. I will never forget the thundersnow near the end of the storm. That was the first time that I ever witnessed lightning, thunder, and snow at the same time. Correct me if I am wrong, but i could of sworn that it was a one two punch storm. I believe we got dumped on during storm #1 on a Sunday. There was nothing open on the following Monday and Tuesday and just when we thought some businesses might try to reopen on Wednesday a second snowstorm dumped an additional foot or more of snow. Can anybody confirm this?
Here’s my food for thought! Isn’t it amazing that the Valentine’s Day Blizzard just a couple of years ago was also a paralyzer but by 4:00 pm the same day pretty much all of the snow was cleaned up and things were about 80% or more back to normal! Nowadays, with most people owning snowblowers, numerous trucks having snowplows on the front of them, and our road crews having up to date snow removal techniques it would be nearly impossible to shut down a major metro area as the Blizzard of ’78 did!
Paul you are wrong on all accounts. In the 1978 storm we were in AA on the Wednesday before the storm and while it did snow on Wednesday it did not amount to much. I drive back to Bay City leaving AA around 8 PM or so and while it was snowing all the way we did not run into heavy snow until we got just north of Flint the rest of the trip was in heavy snow. As for a storm shutting down a big city the Feb 2 storm shut most of GR down for a couple of days and there was not as much wind with that storm.
SlimJim
My husband and I were newlyweds renting an old farm house north of Montague and expecting our first child in the summer. Having grown up in West Michigan I’d seen lots of snow before but nothing like this in such a short span of days! After a couple days we grew tired of being snowed in and were ready for an adventure. (We had no TV at that time.) Steve, who grew up in Texas (and still tells tales from this big snowstorm) managed to shovel a path through the yard, lay a couple of wood planks over the ditch, and maneuver our car out to the road. We lived next to a dairy farm so our way out to Business 31 was mostly clear in order that the milk truck could get in. When we pulled in to the little grocery store in town I noticed we were about the only ones there who didn’t have a four-wheel drive vehicle, a snowmobile, skis or snowshoes. (Yes, they were the only folks out and about!)
I remember it because it was my dad’s birthday and it was one of the two times Grand Rapids took the public transportation off the road. My car was buried at my husbands workstite and my dad had to get him and then get me and we traveled out to Grandville. It took us 3 1/2 hours. That was from Kentwood. So it was bad. My dad turned 82 yesterday and he still remembers it. We haven’t had a bad storm like it since. But one or two in a lifetime is enough. I am glad we are in the Tampa Bay area now.
Snowed in for a number of days here in Muskegon. This is when the term “Cabin Fever” started to circulate. This is the snow storm I measure against all others. And nothing close since that storm in 1978.
Everything came together perfectly for that storm.
I seem to remember seeing you on that other network you used to work for. Not sure if I remember this right,but I remember you left your shoes home and had to spend the few days in your socks. My husband thinks I’m crazy for remembering details like this. Maybe.
I had just had my first child the week before – my husband and I were snowed in for at least three days at our apartment in Saugatuck. I remember seeing cars completely buried in the snow drifts that went across Water Street. I also remember watching a young weatherman on one of the Grand Rapids stations who stayed on the air (on and off) for about three days…Bill, no matter where I moved (several other places in the country) I have never forgotten seeing you’re dedication to that! Glad to be back in the area and see you’re still around!
Aw shucks, that ‘twarnt nothin’……… what about the Blizzard of ’56? Or,
D’Aleo- The Great Appalachian Storm Of 1950. I lived in NE Ohio during those blizzards, and nothing was moving except The National Guard tanks! I remember that the ’56 blizzard dropped 45″ of snow on Ashtabula within 72 hours (official reports) —–and, of course, the definition of blizzard includes the requisite of gale-force winds — right, Bill? So — there was a lot of drifting going on…
In 1956, we were snowed in on our farm for three days, and we finally were able to get to our road in order to drive a sister for her wedding to Orwell , a village 20 mi. S of us. The road had snow piled well above the heighth of cars, and it was one lane. However, as we passed Austinburg, about 2-3 mi. S of our farm, the snow faded away to almost none on the ground… a striking example of ‘lake effect’ snows. She was 2 hrs. late, but we got her to the church NOT on time!
Didnt know we celebrated blizzards.
Why didnt you?
We can celebrate the fact that we lived through one (or more) and are still around to tell the stories!
Ahh Yes The Blizzard of 78,I was 23 Years Old, Had the World by The End of it’s TAIL, or sooo I Thought, It was GREAT, Loved it !!!! Made 100 dollar a DAY or MORE, TAX FREE…. Shoveling of ROOFS, Darn had work, But lots of FUNNN, Jumping of Roofs into The HUGE Snow Piles…. Had the city of G.R. In STRANGEL HOLD, 4 Days. Found This on You Tube ,a Couple Days ago! I could go For A Blizzard of 2013 !!!, Enjoy This if ya wish…. CUE : Michigan Blizzard of ’78 – YouTube
► 8:34► 8:34
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezBZd4OQOXg
Hey BILL, If Your Blog Was around in 78… It would Have LIT- UP. Like a Christmas TREE !!!!!
I would be blogging and lit up like cheech and chong.
Just like , Now!!!!
. Lol
I was about 6 years old at the time, and lived up in the U.P. I remember having around 10 to 12 feet of snow on the ground after that storm, and we were using the roof of our garage for a sledding hill (which just went out into the yard, no drop-off at the edge of the roof because of the drifts). Those without the fortune of having a second floor on their house, through which they could get out second floor windows to go outside, were stuck indoors for a few days, unless neighbors dug them out from the outside.
Why haven’t Bills Arch enemies shown up on this one?? Weather is getting better so by Sunday I bet BDBC and the Gang will arrive. Right Bill?? wink,wink.
I was a sophomore in high school during the Blizzard of 78. We were snowed in for a week. Fun times!
I was a sophomore too, if it didn’t snow, it was windy and our rural roads would plug shut and give us snow days. We had like 8 days of school in the month of January.
We lived in Zeeland and I was 10 at the time. My Dad ran out of places to put the snow as the piles grew along the driveway, so my younger brother and I helped by digging a trench through the snow into our yard. My Dad then loaded up our tub sleds as we made trip after trip through that trench to drag our snow-filled sleds farther into the yard to dump them out. The father of one my friends had piles there driveway snow up next to their garage so that at one point we could climb a ladder to the roof and sled down from the peak into their back yard! That was awesome for 10 year old kids, something you could barely imagine being possible at other times.
FYI: The Cleveland Superbomb (Blizzard of 1978) ranks #4 all time according to Time magazine. The blizzard of 1967 did not even make the list.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2045627_2045629_2045623,00.html
the storm of 78 covered a larger area and thus affected more people and it should be noted that the whole list is heavy with storms in the east. In fact with GR only receiving around 16″ in 78 it could be stated that the west Michigan storm bubble dose exist
here are the top snow falls from Saginaw and Detroit
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/display_climate.php?file=mbssnowdays.htm
and
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/display_climate.php?file=dtwsnowstorms.htm
SlimJim
So detroit did not receive that much from this storm…I wondered why I could remember the great ice storm of 76 as a 3 year old and could not recall any blizzard of 78 as a 5 yr old. Plus, I grew up just north and east of Detroit, and it looks like the low may have been a bit too close to give us 10+ inches.
Detroit was too close to the low and received a good bit of rain
SlimJim
Forget the blizzard of 78 and forget the rain for next week. We have a lot of COLD and SNOW coming up next week and then for the next 5 or 6 weeks. GET READY to ROCK n ROLL baby. Winter weather is on the the way!!!!!!!!!
Good bye snow, then a five day cold spell followed by a zonal flow with tepm’s in the 30′s……..
Also, our average daily high temperature soon starts to go up.
1978 Barometer, note this storm for Tuesday is forecasted by the GFS to bomb out around Hudson Bay at 961mb ( 28.37)
I was 14 years old at the time and lived in the Big Rapids area. The storm seemed to last for a couple days. The first night of the storm, I remember wakeing up in the middle of the night to the sound of the wind, looked outside and was amazed at the sight of the storm. It really looked like a bad storm.
We have a good bit of snow on the ground right now. Yesterday’s snow added to it! It has been a great week of weather for Winter!!
Does tomorrow’s event begin as freezing rain? I can handle the snow! I just do NOT like the ICE. Warms up for a day or two and then, another arctic outbreak!
Woo HOO! Winter finally made it to West Michigan!! Other parts of the country are experiencing it too! About the Blizzard, I lived near the Detroit area then.
I had just received my drivers license! I remember driving this clunker (a 250 dollar rust bucket) through the snow. I was very scared to drive. This was really my first experience in feeling the car slide around! We probably had about a foot of snow. So, I’m thinking Detroit didn’t get as much snow as GR did from that storm!!
Should be snow or mix but then snow as the air is cooled, then later as the cold layer thins we go go sleet or freezing rain before it ends as rain from southwest to northeast, that with storm 1 or the lead wave. 2nd stronger low bring warmer temps with rain and or thundershowers followed by colder air.
I think several inches of snow (big heavy snowflakes) could pile up north of I96
The blizzard of 78 …. wow what memories … I had a brand new baby at home and we were snowed in on top of Michigan Hill (Sinclaire St), just about 4 blocks from (then) Butterworth Hospital, one block from Michigan and College (the old Texaco station – remember that?) . Our short street was buried with nothing moving for DAYS … All the guys on our entire street got together and shoveled the whole street out so people could get out (when the plows were finally moving on Michigan St). One guy wouldn’t come out to help soooooo … they piled all the snow they moved ONTO HIS CAR!!! I dont remember how long it took for him to find and dig his car out days later … not one person on the street would help him! He was a jerk! I could not shovel as I was still recovering from the birth, but I made gallons of coffee and hot chocolate and sandwiches for everyone! I remember seeing a picture on the front of the GR Press of our group of neighbors shoveling out the street (wish I could find that pic again!) The street had about 10 houses on it so it wasn’t very long, but it was impassable and not high on the snow plow list when they were finally moving. In fact, I don’t think we saw a plow on our street for over two weeks! We had cleared it ourselves so people could get out and to work and the store by then. This little snow we have this year is just a dusting compared to THAT year!! As someone said, they don’t make em like they used to …. THANK HEAVENS!!!
Picking up on Cort’s theme from the other blog, fixxxer are you happy today?
Ain’t nobody happy unless fixxxer is happy! (Poor grammar there but I’m sure you get the point) This COULD be a reason to celebrate!
I remember pictures of the overpass at 131 and 100th street where the snow had drifted OVER the overpass! We lived on the lower Westside and went to the Meijer store at Walker and Leonard by snowmobile. The few people in the store were buying the necessities–milk, bread, beer and cigs!
I measured a drift down there on Us 131 at approx. 14 feet!
I remember the storm of 78. I was going to Ferris State. Lots of card playing and adult beverages consumed while waiting the storm out on campus. Well….. also some time for studying…..
I remember the storm of 78. I was going to Ferris State. Lots of card playing and adult beverages consumed while waiting the storm out on campus. Well….. also some time for studying…..
I’m in Zeeland right now! At least 20+ inches on the ground!
We were in our 20s with a 2 year old. I made it to work that Thursday morning but my car stayed there until Sunday. A friend with a 4 WD took me as close to home as he could, to the end of our road a mile away.
Snow was up to the mailboxes ON THE LEVEL. It was hard to see where the road even was. When I finally trudged through all that I took off my pants and stood them up in the corner for awhile.
We had a fuel oil furnace, and the fuel oil in the line gelled and wouldn’t flow, the only time that ever happened. I had to go out and warm the line up with a propane torch just so the furnace would kick back on. We were in the country, and the local volunteer fire department came by on snowmobiles to make sure everyone was okay and deliver groceries if needed. We didn’t see a snow plow down our road for 4 days.
The only storm that may have been worse was in 1967 when school was canceled for ten days in a row. I’d like to see a report on that storm!