| Snowbound - The Blizzard of '77 | |
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When I reviewed Erno Rossi's book "White Death," I had no idea that one of my then-fellow About Guides had lived through that same blizzard! Well, Melissa Rodriguez (at the time, she was our About Scuba Diving Guide) let me know about that, and kindly offered to pen her own account of her experiences during that time. It makes a great companion piece to the review, because in many ways, this story strongly resembles the stories Mr. Rossi has featured in his book: it's personal and told in a straightforward manner. Here is her tale:
Friday, January 28, 1977
I was seven years old and in the second grade when the "Blizzard of '77" hit. At the time, I lived in Medina, New York, located in Orleans County. It's a small town about 35 miles northeast of Niagara Falls and 10 miles south of Lake Ontario. The county was later declared a disaster area.
The storm caught most people off guard. The morning had started off as a typical school day for me. Around lunchtime, the storm swept in fast and furious. I remember staring out of the classroom window and seeing nothing but white. I hoped we would get lucky enough to be sent home early so my brother and I could go sledding. But, the buses weren't going anywhere. We were snowbound!
I don't recall if the school encouraged parents to pick up their children, but my mother arrived later in the afternoon with my baby sister (she was a year old) in tow. When we left the school, a lot of kids were still waiting to go home. I guess we were lucky. Later on, the school would be used as an emergency shelter. What should have been a thirty minute drive home turned into more than an hour as my mother inched her way through the white blindness. Thinking back now, it was probably an unwise thing to do. Hundreds of people eventually became trapped in their vehicles and many of them died.
We finally made it home safe and sound, but our ordeal was just beginning. We lived in an old house and the furnace did not work. It was so cold that the water pipes under the house had started to freeze. So had the fishbowl that contained our goldfish. Our only source of heat was a wood-burning stove. As was our routine, my brother and I brought wood up from the cellar and helped our mother start a fire. My father had not made it home, yet. He had walked up the street about a half-mile to check on my grandparents. How he ever found his way back home in the blinding snow is a miracle to me.
Since the wind was blowing extremely hard, we stapled plastic over the windows to keep out the cold. I remember my father taking a blowtorch to the water pipes to unfreeze them. We also blocked off any unnecessary rooms. We would live in three rooms until the storm was over: the kitchen, living room and one bedroom. It wasn't long before we lost the electricity, but at least we still had heat and we could cook on the wood stove. Because we had heat, we extended our hospitality to our neighbors who did not have heat without the electricity. In turn, they brought water and food. We had plenty of home canned vegetables of our own that my mother had put by earlier in the fall. Nobody went hungry.
We had five people in our family, they had six, and we lived in three tiny rooms together for nearly two weeks. There was no going outside. The snow had piled as high as the house. It didn't take long before we were at each other's throats! I remember trying to stay occupied by playing cards, board games, or listening to the battery operated radio. I'm sure things were difficult for the grownups, too. I don't think I have ever been so thankful as the day the volunteer Red Cross workers stopped by on snowmobiles. Our neighbors elected to be taken to the shelter and I finally got to set foot outside the house again.
Some facts about the blizzard:
1. 29 peopled perished and 20 animals at the Buffalo Zoo died.
2. Visibility was zero for 24 hours straight.
3. The storm did not subside until February.
4. Winds gusted over 50 mph each day with peaks up to 70 mph (near hurricane strength).
5. The wind chill factor was -60 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Before the storm hit, it had snowed for 28 days straight.
7. Less than 12 inches of snow actually fell during the blizzard. The rest of the snow came from the surface of Lake Erie, which had been frozen over since December 14, 1976.
8. The total damage was estimated over $300,000,000.
Melissa Rodriguez
