45 YEARS AGO

[Wacka]

45 years ago was the  Blizzard of '77.  For the younger  board members, it was the worst  snow storm n WNY history.  The whole region was paralyzed, not just  a narrow band like in 2014.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Lake Erie froze over exceptionally early that year.  Mid-December... Most of the snow that caused the Blizzard was sitting on the Lake and blew off.  Kinda crazy to think about it.

 

Only like a foot of new snow fell... But drifts were like 30 feet high.

 

It'd probably never happened again... From the simplest things like picking up your work paycheck... Now it would be Direct Deposit... People couldn't access cash, even when they got out, etc...

 

We are so much more redundant today.  Even front-wheel drive cars make it easier along with the plethora of SUVs... Problem was, the rear-wheel dinosaurs would get stuck, abandoned and then block others... Then storm would bury it all.

 

I honestly don't think it would happen again like it did then... Even if the same conditions would strike. Better systems in place today.

^^^^

Where does that guy with shovel think he's off to?  😆 🤣 😂  He'd be better off waiting till April! 😆 🤣 😂 

[Wacka]

My uncle lived in Alden and was going home from the Chevy Delevan St. plant. I think he said he got stuck at a school for several days in Lancaster with about a dozen people including a cop. Said cop had to pull his gun to force a couple of middle aged women to go inside.They didn't want to leave their car. He said they had to break into the freezer and coolers in the cafeteria for food.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Wacka

[ExiledInIllinois]

My father coming home from VA doc appointment.   Stuck with his Chevy wagon under the viaduct @ Broadway and Union in Cheektowaga.  Lady stopped and blocked everything.   Amazing cars getting stuck on slight grades like that.  He spent better part of a week @ Fork's Hotel.

 

He was pissed. He just wanted to stay rolling and the car stopped inexplicably near the Broadway/Union viaduct.  That was the problem... Most were rear-wheeled driven vehicles.  Got stuck on slightest grades, especially without snows or studded tires on! Then everyone behind them is down.  The storm would swallow the abandoned vehicles making plow efforts even harder...

[Augie]

1 hour ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Lake Erie froze over exceptionally early that year.  Mid-December... Most of the snow that caused the Blizzard was sitting on the Lake and blew off.  Kinda crazy to think about it.

 

Only like a foot of new snow fell... But drifts were like 30 feet high.

 

It'd probably never happened again... From the simplest things like picking up your work paycheck... Now it would be Direct Deposit... People couldn't access cash, even when they got out, etc...

 

We are so much more redundant today.  Even front-wheel drive cars make it easier along with the plethora of SUVs... Problem was, the rear-wheel dinosaurs would get stuck, abandoned and then block others... Then storm would bury it all.

 

I honestly don't think it would happen again like it did then... Even if the same conditions would strike. Better systems in place today.

^^^^

Where does that guy with shovel think he's off to?  😆 🤣 😂  He'd be better off waiting till April! 😆 🤣 😂 

 

I would NOT have wanted to be the first guy to drive a dump truck full of snow onto the lake to put the snow back where it came from after they ran out of places to put it! 

[ExiledInIllinois]

9 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

I would NOT have wanted to be the first guy to drive a dump truck full of snow onto the lake to put the snow back where it came from after they ran out of places to put it! 

EPA....Too... 😉... Don't think they can even do it now. Dump road snow in Lake. 

[Augie]

1 minute ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

EPA....Too... 😉... Don't think they can even do it now. Dump road snow in Lake. 

 

Maybe not, and I get that, but every parking lot had it piled as high as they could reach. It was CRAZY!  What to do? 🤷‍♂️ 

 

I was a senior in high school and missed three straight weeks without having to make it up. My family had just partially moved but sent the movers home early so they didn’t end up living with us. The two houses were within easy walking distance, so we had party central in the old house for all our buddies. Great times!  

[Chef Jim]

We got sent home early from school.  Weird.  Not a lick of snow on the ground but the sky was a freaky almost florescent green color.  Then….BAM no school for two weeks. One week to clear the snow one week to save energy not heating the schools. This was during the the Middle East oil crisis. 
 

I had the foresight to get a carton of smokes before it hit. A few days in my mom asked if I had any cigarettes. Who me??  (1 was 15) noooooo. A couple more days go by. Mom says “I was cleaning your room and found a carton of cigarettes!”  BUSTED!!  It wasn’t until many years later it dawned on me she NEVER cleaned my room.  I’m a neat freak and have always been.  I called her out on it and she just smiled.  Love her.  She’s still with us at 96 and still busting my balls. 😂

Edited January 28, 2022 by Chef Jim

[\GoBillsInDallas/]

 

Different video:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-F8OeZOEU0

 

Edited January 28, 2022 by \GoBillsInDallas/

[\GoBillsInDallas/]

 

[WhoTom]

My school was closed for an entire week. My friends and I excavated snow forts in my backyard, where the drifts were well over our heads.

[SoTier]

12 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Lake Erie froze over exceptionally early that year.  Mid-December... Most of the snow that caused the Blizzard was sitting on the Lake and blew off.  Kinda crazy to think about it.

 

Only like a foot of new snow fell... But drifts were like 30 feet high.

 

It'd probably never happened again... From the simplest things like picking up your work paycheck... Now it would be Direct Deposit... People couldn't access cash, even when they got out, etc...

 

We are so much more redundant today.  Even front-wheel drive cars make it easier along with the plethora of SUVs... Problem was, the rear-wheel dinosaurs would get stuck, abandoned and then block others... Then storm would bury it all.

 

I honestly don't think it would happen again like it did then... Even if the same conditions would strike. Better systems in place today.

^^^^

Where does that guy with shovel think he's off to?  😆 🤣 😂  He'd be better off waiting till April! 😆 🤣 😂 

 

Absolutely!   There were no real warnings about this storm.  The NWS believed that it would be a wind event that would bring some snow (ie, the foot or so that fell) for several hours but totally and completely ignored the fact that the two or so feet of snow on Lake Erie ice was loose and fluffy because it had been so cold, none had melted and compressed, which would have kept much of it in place.   Consequently, there were no blizzard warnings issues.  I don't believe that blizzard watches/warnings and winter storm watches/warnings even existed back then.  Today, we'd know that this monster was coming at least 4-5 days before, and all WNY would be battened down.   Instead, it hit almost without warning.

 

The Buffalo schools and some suburban schools were closed not because they anticipated a severe snow storm but to save energy. 

 

11 hours ago, Augie said:

 

I would NOT have wanted to be the first guy to drive a dump truck full of snow onto the lake to put the snow back where it came from after they ran out of places to put it! 

 

I don't believe that the dump trucks actually went out on Lake Erie.  They may have gone out on the ice at the Small Boat Harbor or other parts of the Buffalo harbor inside the breakwalls.   My brother was out of work for almost a month because of the Blizzard but he made four or five times his lost wages because he had a dump truck and got hired by the City of Buffalo for snow removal.

 

A lot of snow in the city was dumped in the city parks, and there was considerable concern about how that would impact the parks.   People also worried that there would be significant flooding in the spring when all the snow melted.   The parks escaped with minimal damage, and the flooding never came to pass because there was a gradual spring thaw that year.

[T&C]

12 hours ago, Chef Jim said:

We got sent home early from school.  Weird.  Not a lick of snow on the ground but the sky was a freaky almost florescent green color.  Then….BAM no school for two weeks. One week to clear the snow one week to save energy not heating the schools. This was during the the Middle East oil crisis. 
 

I had the foresight to get a carton of smokes before it hit. A few days in my mom asked if I had any cigarettes. Who me??  (1 was 15) noooooo. A couple more days go by. Mom says “I was cleaning your room and found a carton of cigarettes!”  BUSTED!!  It wasn’t until many years later it dawned on me she NEVER cleaned my room.  I’m a neat freak and have always been.  I called her out on it and she just smiled.  Love her.  She’s still with us at 96 and still busting my balls. 😂

We were in same general area... I was a junior in HS. I didn't smoke cigs then but 2 days before I scored an ounce of gold from the back of the Attica barber shop (thank you Billy Lapp) and that got me and a neighbor dude through it. There was nothing to do other than that really until the road was cleared. My Dad got stuck at the Corfu fire dept. for 3 days and was lucky enough to drive behind the first plow on 77 to get back to the house. I remember that once it was over we went to visit my Grandma in E. Amherst and the snow piles in the back of Eastern Hill Mall were HUGE, we were amazed that they were able to get it that high. 

[Chef Jim]

1 minute ago, T&C said:

We were in same general area... I was a junior in HS. I didn't smoke cigs then but 2 days before I scored an ounce of gold from the back of the Attica barber shop (thank you Billy Lapp) and that got me and a neighbor dude through it. There was nothing to do other than that really until the road was cleared. My Dad got stuck at the Corfu fire dept. for 3 days and was lucky enough to drive behind the first plow on 77 to get back to the house. I remember that once it was over we went to visit my Grandma in E. Amherst and the snow piles in the back of Eastern Hill Mall were HUGE, we were amazed that they were able to get it that high. 

Billy Lap!  My dad owned the Theater Restaurant and Richard’s on the corner ar the time.  He had to go to open up but 98 was closed (we lived in Alexander). So he took the back way until the cleared the hill on 98.  It was so cool watching them with the big snow blowers.  They had guys with long poles making sure there were no cars buried.  Imagine if one of those blowers hit a car?  😱

[T&C]

12 minutes ago, Chef Jim said:

Billy Lap!  My dad owned the Theater Restaurant and Richard’s on the corner ar the time.  He had to go to open up but 98 was closed (we lived in Alexander). So he took the back way until the cleared the hill on 98.  It was so cool watching them with the big snow blowers.  They had guys with long poles making sure there were no cars buried.  Imagine if one of those blowers hit a car?  😱

Funny you remember Billy... blind in one eye and tunnel vision in the other. Dude always had the best products though. I don't remember giant snow blowers, just plows... sometimes working in tandem. We couldn't even ride sleds because the snow was soft and pretty scattered as to where it was high and where it was low... it was like you could ride for 100 yards but then there was a wall in front of you. Good times.

[Wacka]

I hadn't bought a car yet, so I had to take the NFTA bus to UB  Main Campus and then the UB Shuttle up to Amherst. UB was closed for a week, but I missed another week, because the bus route past the house  was probably the last plowed and didn't run.  I was waiting for the Bailey St. bus to go home  several weeks after the blizzard. The bus stop was on Bailey across from Grover Cleveland Golf Course.  About every minute, a dump truck full of snow pulled up and dumped it on the course. There were several bulldozers just running up the snow piles, making them larger. That continued for several weeks.  In the spring, the course was littered with garbage, shopping carts and car parts along with the turf being totally dug up.

 

Before the streets were totally cleared, the national guard were cleaning the main streets. I was waiting for the  bus at Bailey and Broadway.  The snow at that corner was at least 10 feet tall, and if you climbed the pile, you could  see probably 10 blocks or more down Broadway. No sign of the bus (but i could see the high lifts from the NG). While I am climbing down the pile, a middle-aged-elderly couple  stops and  asked if I could use a ride.  I never hitchhiked, but that is the only time I accepted a ride from a stranger.I told them the general area i was headed  and they were going that way.  Had them drop me off about a quarter mile from home and walked down my cleared street.

[Draconator]

Me, my sister and our next door neighbor's kids stood on top of a telephone poll in front of our house. The drifts were that high. 

[BuffaloBud]

Was a junior at Lancaster HS.  When we were let out early, I gathered up all the kids in my street and we walked hand to hand like elephants tail to trunk.

 

My father and I were in the Bowmansville Vol FD.  I was picked up by another member by snow machine to get to station.  I had a big bag of clothes for my father who was making his way home from the city.  Slept on the hose bed of one of the trucks.  Essentially broke into the Tops grocery store on Transit to get food for the couple of hundred people that we had bunkered in our banquet hall.  He and I spent 4 days at the station before we could walk home - 3 miles.  Lots of cars buried in the drifts with snow just packed into the engine compartments.  My dad and I were able to get some big rigs started in order to move cars out of the way on Transit / Genessee roads so that emergendy vehicles could pass.  Snow machines were virtually the only way to get around.

We didn't have school for what seemed like 2 - 3 weeks.  If memory serves me correct, didn't they have rail cars dead head into WNY and then haul the snow south to melt after they filled all the open spaces?

[leh-nerd skin-erd]

20 hours ago, T&C said:

We were in same general area... I was a junior in HS. I didn't smoke cigs then but 2 days before I scored an ounce of gold from the back of the Attica barber shop (thank you Billy Lapp) and that got me and a neighbor dude through it. There was nothing to do other than that really until the road was cleared. My Dad got stuck at the Corfu fire dept. for 3 days and was lucky enough to drive behind the first plow on 77 to get back to the house. I remember that once it was over we went to visit my Grandma in E. Amherst and the snow piles in the back of Eastern Hill Mall were HUGE, we were amazed that they were able to get it that high. 

 

20 hours ago, T&C said:

Funny you remember Billy... blind in one eye and tunnel vision in the other. Dude always had the best products though. I don't remember giant snow blowers, just plows... sometimes working in tandem. We couldn't even ride sleds because the snow was soft and pretty scattered as to where it was high and where it was low... it was like you could ride for 100 yards but then there was a wall in front of you. Good times.

What if one of you is actually Billy Lapp, just trying to build the legend of Billy Lapp?  
 

I was just telling my wife, a snow adverse city girl from downstate, that yesterday was the 45th anniversary of The Blizzard.  We talked a bit about being snowed in, the crazy winds and relatively low snowfall, about my Dad being stuck at work, my aunt unable to get home and staying with us, and she remarked how crazy it must have been.  
 

Ironically, a few minutes later she was walking by the front door and said “We’ll we’ve got a snow storm here today!”.  As near as I can tell, the snow on the trees is being blown off by moderate wind gusts, there is no substantial accumulation and will be none.  When I mocked her, I got the standard response “Not everyone is from Buuuuffalo.”. 
 

Oh, and special thanks to Farrah Fawcett for her service.  
 

 

[ExiledInIllinois]

1 hour ago, leh-nerd skin-erd said:

 

What if one of you is actually Billy Lapp, just trying to build the legend of Billy Lapp?  
 

I was just telling my wife, a snow adverse city girl from downstate, that yesterday was the 45th anniversary of The Blizzard.  We talked a bit about being snowed in, the crazy winds and relatively low snowfall, about my Dad being stuck at work, my aunt unable to get home and staying with us, and she remarked how crazy it must have been.  
 

Ironically, a few minutes later she was walking by the front door and said “We’ll we’ve got a snow storm here today!”.  As near as I can tell, the snow on the trees is being blown off by moderate wind gusts, there is no substantial accumulation and will be none.  When I mocked her, I got the standard response “Not everyone is from Buuuuffalo.”. 
 

Oh, and special thanks to Farrah Fawcett for her service.  
 

 

I guess this was before her time Downstate:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blizzard_of_1888

 

It's the reason why we build so well today... Like power lines in the ground, building codes, etc... Why we are so progressive...

 

"The Great Blizzard of 1888, Great Blizzard of '88, or the Great White Hurricane (March 11–14, 1888) was one of the most severe recorded blizzards in American history. The storm paralyzed the East Coast from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine, as well as the Atlantic provinces of Canada. Snow fell from 10 to 58 inches (25 to 147 cm) in parts of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and sustained winds of more than 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) produced snowdrifts in excess of 50 feet (15 m). Railroads were shut down and people were confined to their homes for up to a week. Railway and telegraph lines were disabled, and this provided the impetus to move these pieces of infrastructure underground. Emergency services were also affected.  ..."

[BuffaloBill]

I was at home. My Dad came home from work and was one of the last people down our road. There were dairy farms around us. They had to dump milk because no trucks could get in to pick it up. People went to grocery store on snowmobiles. We had a snowdrift that went over the power lines down the road. It was a crazy event. 

[Nextmanup]

I remember this well, though I was only 6.

 

My dad was trapped in downtown Buffalo at work, and had to sleep the night sitting at his desk.

 

We have a photo of him asleep at his desk wearing his work clothes and tie, etc....

 

We had a long hedge running for like 40 feet along the side of our property.  It was around 5 to 6 feet tall...it was completely gone!  Totally buried under a monster snow drift.

 

This photo gives an idea of what I'm talking about (actually from the blizzard of '77!)

 

 

 

 

 

[\GoBillsInDallas/]