“This is the big one! Quick... for Gods sakes... you better run out now for milk and bread! Quick! Ohhhhhh!!!”
Only two storms I remember ever lived up to that kind of panic. The blizzard/ice storm of '76 and the one in '78.
We had a pretty good one back in the winter of '68-'69... but being my first year in college... I was quite oblivious to what was going on. Heh.
I was in Buffalo for the Blizzard of 1977 and the Panic of '78 which mainly missed us but did trap 500 people at the old Aud who had gone down to watch the Sabres.
I'd just moved to Buffalo in 1977 from Los Angeles, and when the blizzard began at 11:00 a.m. I was at work in a downtown hotel. Mommies went screaming into the blizzard to rescue their children from warm, dry, safe schools and trap them on buried streets in freezing cars with no food or water; manly northern men went into the blizzard to prove that it was no big deal... and sensible people who worked in hotels rustled up bedding and mattresses, filled up all the bottles and pails with water, and settled down to work. When the work day was over we went down to the bar and drank and played cards. We were there for 3 days and when we came out to either hike home through the drifts or catch a ride with someone in a jeep or truck, we confronted 12 feet of snow and a really interesting couple of weeks coping with it all.
Currently it's -16 with a -27 wind chill, and snowing steadily. Since this is Toronto and not Jamaica, no one is particularly concerned. The grocery store was pretty busy at 8:30 a.m. when I went to do my normal week shopping, but people seem to be going about their business.
We had a pretty good one back in the winter of '68-'69... but being my first year in college... I was quite oblivious to what was going on. Heh."
I remember all of those, in fact I was in MA for the one (actually two right together) in February of '69. It was my first year in college too. I was at Stonehill near the cape. For the blizzard of '78 I lucked out because down here in CT we only got about 20", :).