If you were alive in New England in 1978, you remember today.
We’ve had big blizzards since. But nothing compares to the storm that struck 40 years ago today.
Snow, snow and more snow smothered the region. High winds and high tides caused flooding. It was a chaotic mess.
People abandoned their cars on I-95 — or stayed in them, hoping for rescue that never came. Governor Ella Grasso shut down the state. My friends who were still at Brown University took sled runs — out of 2nd floor dorm windows.
I was just starting my journalism career. My neighbor — Greens Farms Elementary School principal Jack Ready — was in charge of the town’s emergency shelter, located in the gym.
Around midnight, he called me to help. A police car picked me up. I spent the night fixing cots, preparing supplies, doing whatever I could.
The next morning, I walked — down the center of the barely plowed Post Road, because cars were not moving — to my new job in Brooks Corner: sports editor of the Westport News.
There was a paper to put out, and hardly anyone around to do it.
We did it.
If you’ve got memories of the ’78 blizzard, click “Comments” below.
And if you were around even earlier — for the 1930s-era blizzard, shown in the photos below — we’d really like to hear your story.
(Hat tip: Westport Historical Society)
