28 Years Ago Today
The Blizzard of '78.
More than 4 feet of snow.
100 MPH winds.
High tides cresting 40 foor waves.
Dozens of homes and businesses wiped out instantly, hundreds badly damaged.
100 people dead due to every imaginable weather related cause.
I was 12. Old enough to shovel snow for several people in the neighborhood to help out. Old enough to be terrified watching the news showing the parking lot route 128 had become and waiting for my dad to make it home.
But young enough to enjoy the fact that we had a week off from school and that the roads were shut down. Young enough not to worry about being without power or phones for a while. Young enough that the '64 Impala that someone had run a red light and smashed into my Dad and brother two months earlier, which no longer had a driver window, which was totally covered to the roof with snow - I was young enough that it became our snow fort for the winter.
I very well remember the Blizzard of '78, but as a child ... I wonder what my memories would be had I gone through it as an adult?
2 comments:
I was a fisherman at the time. my boat was tied up at Beverly Harbor Marina during the storm. We spoke with Capt Frank Quirk from the radio shack at the marina.I wasd one of teh peiople who talked in the CG 44 footer due to it's rolling over an d then uprighting(it was built that way. It lost its electronics array and we spoke on walkie talkies. they made it in during a white out and tied up at the marina. An amphibious duck from gloucester came down 128 and picked them up.the coast Guardsmen were in tough shape but made it. The reason for all theis, A tanker called teh global Hope had broke free of it's anchor and drifted to coney Island , hard aground and high and mostly dry. The boat was 65 feet high anfd the water depth never exceded 45 feet inside Baker's island. so sending help was unnecessary, the tanker crew was safe. The Can do and coast guard could have stayed home but of course it wasn,t their way. the Can do was salvaged and now the hull is being used for salvage work locally. My web is richardburnham.com. I like your reviews and have told part of my story. thanks richard
Thanks ... there were some interesting radio reports talking about the Global Hope story ...
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