OT---Blizzard of '77 40 year Anniversary coming up 1/28...

[Big Turk]

The Buffalo News posted a big spread about the Blizzard of '77 as its anniversary is coming up next Saturday, 1/28....

Although it isn't usually talked about in "Epic" Blizzards of the US, it puts those storms to shame both in intensity and duration. While there was not that much new snowfall, only a foot in total, the combination of events that all came together over a period of almost a month and a half makes it an event that will likely not be experienced again in our lifetime, our children's lifetime and more than likely our grandchild's lifetime.

A small recap for those who aren't familiar with it:

BACKGROUND:

The elements of a perfect store:

• Massive snowfall amounts already on the ground---Before December 1976, Buffalo's all-time record for monthly snowfall was 54.2 inches. That record was crushed two months in a row with 60.7 inches in December 1976, followed by 68.7 inches in January.
  
• Snow Depth prior to the storm beginning: 33 inches
  
• The lengthy cold period---starting December 26th, Buffalo went 45 straight days with continual below frezing temperatures, with the average temperature in December clocking in at 22.0 degrees and January at 13.8, both far below average.
  
• An entirely frozen lake---the Eastern end of Lake Erie froze very early that year on December 14th, about a month before normal
  
• The absence of the normal thaw-freeze allowed all that snow to remain in loose snow packs instead of turning into the hardened "snow-crete"
  
• City of Buffalo snowplows were already feeling the effects prior to the storm with 33 out of the 79 plows in for repairs from battling the near constant snowfall and numerous abandoned cars on the streets they had been dealing with for the previous month+
  

PRE-STORM EVENTS:

Without all the technological advancements we have today like Cell phones, pagers, etc many people went to work expecting just a rough winter day. However by mid-morning Friday January 28th, the meteorological models showed a turn for the worse and they ended up issuing a blizzard warning somewhere between 9 and 11AM, not nearly enough of an advance notice as the brunt of storm hit around 11:30AM with hundreds of thousands of people at work still.

THE STORM:

• Beginning at 11:30AM Friday morning, Buffalo's visibility remained at 0 for an almost incomprehensible 13 straight hours.
  
• By mid-afternoon Friday winds reached 46 mph with gusts to 69 mph
  
• Temperatures dropped from a high of 26 at around Noon to 0 in four hours
  
• Windchills overnight reached -36.2 at the airport and stayed below 0 for more than 48 straight hours(windchills across the area reached -60 degrees in places)
  
• snow drifts of 15 feet in teh City of Buffalo by Friday night
  
• 29 people died in the storm, and likely many more from activities related to clearing the snow
  
• The storm passes early Saturday morning but then reverses course and hits the area again with Blizzard conditions by Mid-Afternoon Saturday
  
• wind gusts of over 50 mph occurred each day until February 1st when the storm officially ended
  

POST STORM:

• Some places remained closed for up to 2 weeks, not reopening until February 14th
  
• Over 900 National Guard troops were dispatched to the area to help with snow removal amounting to 39,000 man hours or 20 "man-years"
  
• 353 US Army Corp of Engineer personnel deployed to the area
  
• 216 contractors hired by the US Army Corp of Engineers to clear 3,186 miles worth of road in 9 counties
  
• 3,500 estimated vehicales abandoned during the storm
  
• Over 1,000 pieces of snow equipment were mobilized for use to help with cleanup
  
• 3 Reindeer excaped from the Buffalo Zoo
  
• 25 foot snow drifts were common with numerous places reaching 35-40 feet, completely burying two story houses and allowing little kids to walk in the middle of intersections and touch the traffic lights
  

For anyone in the Western New York area who was involved in this, and even some like myself who were too young to remember it but have seen and read a lot about it, this is the storm against which every other storm in this area is measured. The number of factors that all came together over a 45 day period to create this monster of a storm likely will not be experienced again for a long, long time. Some say its a once in 200 year storm, others a once in 500 year storm and a few saying a once in 1,000 year storm. Whatever the case, it truly was a massive storm that nobody who lived through it will ever forget.

Here are some links to info on it:

Wikipedia: This has some very detailed information that isn't found in other places with a lot of backstory, day-to-day information during the storm and its aftermath Wikipedia--Blizzard of '77

Buffalo News Section from today's paper: Buffalo News---Blizzard of '77 Anniversary Section

Pics from the Blizzard of 77: Pics

So for those who lived through it---Where were you when the Blizard of '77 hit and what happened during those 5 days?

[WotAGuy]

I was 17, and was working in Niagara Falls as a helper on a RC Cola truck delivering pop to supermarkets. The weather turned and we decided to quit and head home in the early afternoon. It was too late - it was already a whiteout, roads were jammed and cars had trouble moving through the heavy snow. I was running out of gas, so I pulled into a bar and went inside. I talked to some people and a guy offered to drive me to a nearby Howard Johnson's so I could get a room and ride out the storm. I was stuck there for three days - ended up going literally stir-crazy, playing basketball by shooting vending machine popcorn into the wastebasket.

 

Finally, it cleared just enough for my sister and her boyfriend to come and rescue me. It took them a few hours to get from Clarence to the motel on Niagara Falls Blvd. We got my car, got gas and made the slow, treacherous trip back home.

 

For the next week, we did the same thing every day - got a sled, walked 3/4 of a mile to the Niagara County Produce store at Transit and Millersport and got a case of Genny Cream Ale pounders. We played cards (including weird games called Mille Bornes and Michigan Rummy), and then hooked the sled to a rope tied to the back bumper of the car and drove down the road luge style. I remember seeing a wire sticking up out of a snow bank and dug it out to find it was a car antenna. No one was inside, thank God.

 

It was a lifetime experience and my sister ended up eventually marrying her boyfriend. He stayed with us during the storm, until my mother told him "It's April - you can leave now!"

[PromoTheRobot]

My street was closed off. The 8-foot snow drift turned to ice and you couldn't be plowed away, It had to melt. Cut our street in half. My car was buried till spring.

Edited January 23, 2017 by PromoTheRobot

[I_want_2_BILL_Lieve]

I was a high school freshman at the time. Shortly after the worst of it, my mom made me go two houses over to an elderly lady's house to see if she needed milk, or bread or other supplies. I put on my winter coat, and boots (with the required bread bags as liners) and pulled my brothers runner sled to her house in anticipation of hauling a load. Had to shovel her steps just to get the front door. I rang the bell and she came to the door in her house coat. I asked if she needed me to go the store for her. Yes, she replied and went back in to get money and a list. There were only 2 things on the list: Genny Cream Ale and cigarettes. For the life of me I cannot remember if I actually walked the half mile to the nearest corner store.

 

I also remember taking a city bus to school a week later. I stood at the corner of Parkside and Amherst on top of a huge snow bank waiting for my bus. It was about 7 feet off the ground, looking down on the cars and could see the top of my bus. The street sign was at my ankles. I was actually worried the sharp street sign would cut my ankles.

Edited January 22, 2017 by I_want_2_BILL_Lieve

[8-8 Forever?]

i knew there was a reason I left 35 years ago. thanks for reminding me. Other than June thru September, when the weather is spectacular, WNY weather absolutely sucks by any reasonable standard.

[gomper]

My GF's Mom's boyfriend is Barry LIllis. He's got a story or two about that experience. Lol. . He'll be part of a two part special on 2 the 27th and 28th.

[long suffering bills fan]

That brings back memories. I was coming home from for. I made it as far as the Cheektowaga town hall. That is where I spent the night with about 109 other people. About a 1/3 of the cars were towed to make room for f

Traffic.

[BillsPride12]

It was before my time but that Blizzard is just as much a part of Buffalo history as the 4 Super Bowl losses and No Goal. I enjoyed reading the spread in the Buffalo News today and will be interested to read people's personal first hand accounts on here.

[Meathead]

i was sixteen and power had gone out early at my rural home so we headed to my grandmothers farm four miles away where there was a fireplace and plenty of food in cold storage. we barely made it without getting stuck and settled in front of the fireplace roasting chestnuts and trying to conserve our flashlights and lanterns for the long haul ahead

 

due to the wide open fields and brisk wind, the snow collected on the east side of the sparsely spaced homes. our farmhouse was on the east side of the road and we could look out across kitty corner to a three story victorian with a big barn directly behind it that the plows were having a terrible time keeping clear. cars began getting stuck and before their owners could free them another car would get stuck, and another, and another. pretty soon they closed the road bc there were too many stuck cars to plow around

 

over the next couple hours we watched as the resulting snow drift swallowed that big house whole. the barn behind them allowed the snow to begin piling up on their west side, and the giant stuck car monster caught everything else on the other side. we wondered what the ppl who lived there were going to do bc it looked like they werent going to be able to avoid getting buried. but we didnt see anything so we assumed they werent home. that is, until the snow had almost covered them over completely and we finally saw them climb out of their attic window and head to the house a ways across the street

 

i dont remember exactly how long we were there but it was a while. even when we were finally able to leave my grandparents, that massive car monster snow drift was still too unweildy to dig out so we had to go the long way around to get home. i know it took them almost a week to dig all those cars out enough to make it safe to plow

 

back home i recall walking through open air tunnels that we had to dig that were literally over my head just to get to the road. i also recall that despite all that snow we couldnt even use our snowmobiles bc there was so much new snow that you would bury yourself if you tried to ride across the top of it

[Augie]

I was a HS senior and we began moving about 1/4-1/2 mile up the road early that morning. The movers sensed what was coming and said if they didn't bug out right then and there we'd have them living with us for a while. We waived goodbye when they were about 75% moved. This meant I was the only HS senior with a partially furnished home in Williamsville to myself for weeks following the onset. We had a blast! We walked major roads that were completely abandoned making it feel like the end of the world. Despite risk of fine, an occasional car would pass. They ALWAYS stopped and asked if we needed a ride somewhere (which we accepted at times).

 

There are pictures of me talking face to face with our neighbor across the street...... with him sticking his head out of the second story window. That was one amazing storm, and it taught me how cool it is for people to take care of each other when things get really rough. A life lesson that stays with you forever.

[vincec]

Was awesome. I was out of school for a couple of weeks. My parents were stuck at work and I stayed with my cousins for a couple of days. The snow drift ran right up onto the roof of our two story house. I wanted to climb up onto the roof but my parents wouldn't let me. :-)

[Luvbills]

 

I was a senior in HS. I happened to be in the main office helping out with some Yearbook tasks and the sky turned black and about 5 minutes later, the snow started. Then the phones started ringing. My mom told me to go get my two younger brothers and to NOT let them ride the bus home. Our neighbor came and got about 8 of us in his car. We were out of school the entire rest of the week. I don't remember being without power for long. It was a crazy day that's for sure.

[Augie]

Was awesome. I was out of school for a couple of weeks. My parents were stuck at work and I stayed with my cousins for a couple of days. The snow drift ran right up onto the roof of our two story house. I wanted to climb up onto the roof but my parents wouldn't let me. :-)

Isn't it interesting (and cool) how many people think it was awesome? I think I missed close to 3 weeks of school (living in Williamsville and going to St Joes I got off if Williamsville, Kenmore, Buffalo or anyone else was closed!). I jumped off the roof of a detached garage into a snow drift, only to find a VW Beatle in the snow. Not sure if I did any damage. It belonged to Bob Kaufman who played for the Braves, and at about 6'8" I'm still not sure how he fit in there. My sister used to babysit for them. Growing up in Buffalo was great!

[ExWNYer]

I was a 13 year old 7th grader, living in Grand Island. We had a two story house and the snow drifts were up to the windows on the second floor. I remember having to come thru the garage to get out and tunnel thru to the front door. There was no way to open it as the snow was packed up against the storm door. Once a path was cleared, I remember thinking that it looked like we were coming out of an igloo. Pretty wild stuff. My best friend lived across the street on a cul de sac and the snow plows pushed as much of the snow to the middle of it as they could. We used that huge mound as a snow fort/mountain fortress for snowball fights and I swear I remember it still melting down in May. It was awesome for a kid (not so much for those who had to work or drive in it). Huddling around the radio for weeks with my brother & sister waiting for Danny Neaverth to announce the snow closings on WKBW was one of my fondest memories of that time .

[Playoff Bound]

I worked for FedEx in San Diego at the time. I am from Rochester so I had roots in the area. The way we communicated between locations was using a Teletype machine. You typed your message on a tape and then fed it through the machine where it sent the message to another location. We had just launched our aircraft when we got the message from the Buffalo station saying the employees were stranded and could not leave because of the blizzard. FedEx was a small company of a few hundred employees at the time and my heart went out to them. I couldn't imagine what they were dealing with.

[purple haze]

I was four. I remember my grandfather trying to drop me and my mother off at home before the storm got really bad, but the snow was already too high for him to chance driving down our street off of Kensington Avenue. So, he let us out on the corner and we proceeded to fight the wind to our place in the middle of the block. It took a while to trudge through that snow and battle that wind; me huddled against my mother's leg.

 

It sounded like a runaway train out there and that's all you could do was hear. It was a just about a white out. I distinctly recall the sound of windows rattling. We finally made it to the house and the wife of the family who lived on the first floor of the house made us hot chocolate; found out years later that lady had actually been one of my parents teachers at Lafayette. My Pop got stuck downtown and, I believe, wound up getting out of his office and sleeping in the lobby of the Statler. He was stuck down there for two or three days.

 

Once life came back to normal, me and the other kids in the neighborhood made the bomb snow tunnels, igloos and snowmen. Some good games of hide-and-go-seek, football and sledding went on for quite a while.

Edited January 23, 2017 by purple haze

[Augie]

I worked for FedEx in San Diego at the time. I am from Rochester so I had roots in the area. The way we communicated between locations was using a Teletype machine. You typed your message on a tape and then fed it through the machine where it sent the message to another location. We had just launched our aircraft when we got the message from the Buffalo station saying the employees were stranded and could not leave because of the blizzard. FedEx was a small company of a few hundred employees at the time and my heart went out to them. I couldn't imagine what they were dealing with.

 

I hope you got stock. At least you got to be in San Diego! Edited January 23, 2017 by Augie

[Homer]

I lived thru that blizzard and the tornado in joplin Mo. and im a Bills. not sure which is worse.

[DC Tom]

And the city almost lost an entire block to a fire. A space heater started a fire in a house at the height of the blizzard. It took the fire company 20 minutes to respond from around the block. When they got there, between the drifts and the freezing pipes, they couldn't find a working hydrant. When they did find one, it was far enough away that the hoses they ran to it froze. When they finally got the fire out, it had involved three houses...and from the spray, the trucks were encased in a solid foot of ice, and couldn't be recovered for something like a week.

 

It was a hell of a storm. It's actually one of the two disasters that prompted the creation of FEMA. The second was Mt. St. Helens.

[DC Tom]

By the way...if anyone has the old Blizzard of 77 game, I'd love to borrow it. I've always wanted to make an online version, and I have the next 3 months off...

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

I was very young but I remember my house being buried to the second story in a drift

[Punching Bag]

By the way...if anyone has the old Blizzard of 77 game, I'd love to borrow it. I've always wanted to make an online version, and I have the next 3 months off...

 

You can get most of the game online.

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/162309/blizzard-77-travel-game

It was made for a number of different cities and rules are the same.

[Dragonborn10]

I was 6. Barely remember it. Lived in Tonawanda. I do remember only being able to get our of the house from a second story window. The snow drifts were above the front door.

[Niagara Bill]

I lived in Niagara Falls Canada and left work about 4 pm that day. Never had I seen such snow and winds. We waited a little to allow some of the roads to clear of cars. My theory was the snow was bad, the traffic was going to be more trouble. It was soooo cold. We worked outside the city and had a 10 mile drive. ( many people stayed at work and were trapped for 3 days with food arriving by snowmobiles) I drove 3 girls from the office home with me. ( got them close to their houses where they could walk a block or 2) NO cell phones in those days.

I didn`t make it home and had to stay at a friends apartment. On the way home the snow was so deep on the road and so hard you drove on top of the snow in places. The power lines in places were touchable. Incredible. I later learned we actually drove over top of cars that were abandoned on the road and the wind and snow covered.

My boss had to drive through a tunnel on his way. Couldn`t see and hit a huge snow drift and forced then to walk 2 miles home. Later found out he hit another car in that snow drift and the person in that car froze to death.

The good side of the adventure was my friends apartment were I stayed had a neighbor who was very pretty, lonely, and friendly. While it was cold outside it was hot inside. A relationship that last a few months. Nice benefit for a 25 yr old. from the most incredible storm.

[BuffaloBud]

Junior in HS and fireman with Bowmansville FD. School let us out early. I got all the kids on the street together and we held hands walking home. Looked like a bunch of elephants walking together. One of the guys from the FD came by in snowmachine to pick me up and take me to fire station. Met my dad there as he just made it out of the city and you couldn't get past Transit and Genesse. Spent the next 4 days at fire station. Slept on the hose bed of one of the trucks. Shuttled supplies to people that couldn't get out and got supplies for the 300-400 people that we had in our banquet room. The two of us walked the 2 miles from the fire station back home once everything settled down. At the intersection of Pleasant View and Central Ave was able to touch the signal light in the middle of the intersection. IIRC, we did not have school for a couple of weeks afterwards.

Edited January 23, 2017 by BuffaloBud

[plenzmd1]

I was 14, parents stuck at work for the weekend, drank my first beer that storm! I was at Catholic school, don't remember making up the days

 

My poor sister was a senior in public high school and class was so far delayed she graduated on July 2nd!

[Marv's Neighbor]

I moved to N VA in 1970. Sorry I missed that!

[Formerly Allan in MD]

My father was trapped downtown, on Chippewa, in his second floor business. He slept on the bare floor a few nights. But he was lucky, there was a bar downstairs, with food.

[\GoBillsInDallas/]

My GF's Mom's boyfriend is Barry LIllis.

 

Is he still on the wagon? That alcohol abuse almost killed him.

 

The snow drift ran right up onto the roof of our two story house. I wanted to climb up onto the roof but my parents wouldn't let me. :-)

 

Our front door and side door were buried for weeks. We had to enter/exit the house through a 6'x2' window in the family room.

 

I don't remember being without power for long.

 

Probably because the year before they had that killer ice storm that knocked out power for a week. Any electrical wire or pole that could have failed at that time, did.

 

 

Hey, I'm surprised no one has stories about gettin' some. Our smokin' hot 17-year-old neighbor was stuck at home alone for five days and my mom asked me to go over there five times a day to make sure everything was fine. Gawd, she was hot.

 

Update: I actually ran into her at an airport 15 years ago - all 200 pounds of her.

[Gordio]

i knew there was a reason I left 35 years ago. thanks for reminding me. Other than June thru September, when the weather is spectacular, WNY weather absolutely sucks by any reasonable standard.

 

 

Just an FYI alot of the local golf courses were open this weekend wiseguy. MY brother in law played at Byrnecliff & we went to Terry Hills. The conditions were great, shot an 89. Not bad.

[gomper]

 

Is he still on the wagon? That alcohol abuse almost killed him.

 

He's been sober for over 30 years. Saw him Saturday. Great guy.

[Wacka]

Was at home when the blizzard hit. The day before was bad too. I was a sophomore at UB and didn't have a car yet. Took the Metro bus to the main street campus and then the UB bus up to Amherst. The bus couldn't navigate the road net to the buildings on the spine, so they let about 10 of us off at Clemens Hall (English building). Most of the building on the academic spine were not finished yet and so we had to walk like mountain climers to the Physics building. When I got into the classroom they announced that the school was closing in an hour and get back to Min Street if needed. There was nothing but fields between the Physics building and Governors dorm and the snow was mid-thigh deep.Mananged to get back home at about 1 PM.

[Punching Bag]

My family lived in Steelton which is on the border between Blasdell and Hamburg. I was a sophomore in high school.

 

IThis storm was treated as reason to just play hockey and once we were dug out. Path between garage and house hand snow packed to almost roof of garage and when we went out back door we went thru packed snow and ice tunnel over 10 tall. I went down to playground to shovel basketball court for them to play. Snow was so deep I was not able to clear it and did not get paid. They finally played in pond at back of Penn Dixie Quarry since it got so cold entire pond froze solid. Fishing was ruined there for a long time.

[Seasons1992]

By the way...if anyone has the old Blizzard of 77 game, I'd love to borrow it. I've always wanted to make an online version, and I have the next 3 months off...

 

My parents have it....with the newspapers from then still in there. Grew up playing it once a year.

[Augie]

Hey, I'm surprised no one has stories about gettin' some. Our smokin' hot 17-year-old neighbor was stuck at home alone for five days and my mom asked me to go over there five times a day to make sure everything was fine. Gawd, she was hot.

 

Update: I actually ran into her at an airport 15 years ago - all 200 pounds of her.

Or.... just the opposite. My girlfriend was many miles away and we couldn't drive for what seemed like FOREVER!

[Big Turk]

I was a few weeks shy of my 2nd birthday so I have no recollection of it. My Mom has talked to me about it a lot through the years. She was at work that morning and heard the news on the radio about the bad storm coming and told everyone she was leaving(she worked across the street from Buffalo General at the time) and all her co-workers laughed and made fun of her saying "Oh its just going to be a little snow, why are you leaving for that??" Clearly she made the right choice and they made the wrong choice as most of them were trapped there for a few days while my Mom made it home through the beginning of the blizzard although it took her about 3 hours she said...we only lived about 15 minutes from where she worked at on normal day, near the Kensington and Eggert area at the time. Wish I would have been old enough to remember...I've been here through the 7 feet of snow in 5 days back in the early 2000's, the 7 feet of snow in a day and a half a few years ago, the October Storm and numerous other lake snow events, but from what I have seen and heard, nothing comes close to what the Blizzard of '77 was and it's long ranging impact on the psyche of this community.

Edited January 25, 2017 by matter2003

[ExiledInIllinois]

Funny... I was 9. I don't really remember it all too well compared to other storms as much.. 1976 ice storm, 1985... Are more vivid to me weatherwise. I grew up in S.Cheektowaga/West Seneca schools. I must have been home safely. Now, my father was stuck @ Forks Hotel (Sloan)... Boy was he pissed. Trying to get home from an appointment @ the VA when a lady stopped, got stuck under the viaduct on Union, blocking him and others from getting through. Only miles from home!

 

Boy did rear wheel drive cars suck back then... Even on slightest inclines.

 

I do sorta remember the call my father made to say he was safe.

 

We live in a totally different world now... Cell phones, DirectDeposit paychecks, debit cards, ATMs, front wheel drive cars, traction control, AWD, 4x4... Simple things we take for granted really hedge against disasters much better now. One big problem was that people simply couldn't get their weekly pay... Access to their money... Yeah you could write checks I suppose, but cash at banks (closed), etc... Forget about it!

Edited January 25, 2017 by ExiledInIllinois

[Guffalo]

I was a sophomore at St. Joes. We lived in Kenmore, right off Delaware Ave. I remember getting home and watching the snow just continue coming down for what seemed like forever.

 

My Dad made it home from downtown in the late afternoon. My brother had been driving our 1966 mustang and abandoned it just off the skyway. Somehow he made it home, but we never saw the car again.

 

After a day or two of being cramped in the house we went to a Presbyterian church next to my friends house with a fire escape outside, we took turns jumping off it into the snow until we packed it down. At some point about 2-3 days into it, the guy that was the facilities manager for my Dads building said he was going downtown to check out the building and asked my dad if I wanted to go. I was so bored I was ready to go anywhere, so this little old guy (Arnold Dahl) drove his rear wheel drive Cadillac from Kenmore to the Holling Press building on Washington street downtown. It was something to see, this 80 something year old guy slalom down Delaware avenue in a gold caddy, through the "S" turns at the park and right into the downtown area. I know I helped him shovel a bit, he checked the boilers and the water and we headed back. The rest of the storm we just watched as national guards drove down Delaware on their way downtown. I was actually relieved when school started after a 2 week break. These days, my kids still have no idea what that kind of snow looks like.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Don't look now... But big incoming LE snow for the snow belts alee of The Lakes. Better get your late January golf games in now. Some areas may get 2 feet by Sunday? Lakes are warm, not frozen much... "Gift that keeps on giving!"

[gomper]

<iframe width="640" height="360" style="border-width:0" src="http://interactive.tegna-media.com/video/embed/embed.html?id=2491621&type=video&title=Blizzardof '77: 40 Years Later&site=71&playerid=6918249996581&dfpid=32805352&dfpposition=Video_prestream_external§ion=home"></iframe>