All over New England – and especially here in Rhode Island and Massachusetts – people are gearing up for what Weather.com has been calling a “historic and crippling blizzard.” In the midst of buying their milk and bread, people have also been stopping to reminisce about the major snowstorms to hit RI, the infamous Blizzard of ’78, and the Valentine’s Blizzard in 2007.
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| This screencap is from February 7, 2013. |
During the 2007 storm I was, of course, alive and well. I remember hearing that one of my cousins had been stuck in his car for 3+ hours trying to drive home from work, along with countless other RI and MA citizens. Unfortunately, due to weather in New England being notoriously difficult to predict, many businesses (including schools) did not heed warnings to close, and many individuals decided to try to beat the storm home, rather than either staying put or not venturing out in the first place.
The 2007 blizzard – the one most people reading this blog (due to the age demographic) will likely remember best as one of the major storms to hit our area – was similar to another February blizzard, the Blizzard of 1978. (Apparently, February in New England is a popular time for ridiculously strong storms.) The storm began on February 5 and continued until February 7.
Over the span of two days in 1978 Providence, RI received a record breaking 28.6 inches of snow, with the city of Woonsocket, RI reporting an unofficial 54 inches. During this “weather event” (during which I was not alive) thousands of people were stranded on the roadways, with nearly 3,000 people in Rhode Island needing to be rescued from their vehicles by the National Guard.
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| Providence after the Blizzard of 1978. |
As people discuss what they remember about the 1978 storm, a common theme is how quiet it was – the entire state of Rhode Island shut down, and Providence, RI did not re-open for business until February 13, a full five days after the storm had ended. Which brings me to the point of this post…
I wonder what would happen if this storm is similar in scale and magnitude, as it’s predicted to be.
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| Blizzard of 1978: Cars were literally buried in snow on the roadways |
The Rhode Island and Massachusetts Governors have already ordered people off the roads beginning at 12pm today (although rumor has it my place of business won’t even be sending us home until 12pm), but New Englanders are famous for ignoring weather and traffic warnings. There’s a reason Rhode Island is regularly graded as one of the worst driving states in the country. So, people (perhaps even myself) will be out after 12pm, whether it’s because they need to grab one last thing at the market, or because they are headed home from work. But will we be stuck? Will the highway become impassible as the storm wears on?
Could we all potentially get snowed into our cars on the roadways? Will the world be as quiet as it was in 1978, with no traffic passing through most towns for days on end? And what if the power goes out… for days?!
In 1978 the world was, of course, reliant on electricity – but businesses, and even every day life, didn’t function with the same punishing demand for electronically driven technology. Typewriters were the norm in offices, and documents made their way from point A to point B by the US Postal Service, not e-mail. People had access to their phones as long as the phone lines weren’t down as well, since all phones were landlines. Cordless phones were still a few years off, and mobile phones didn’t gain prominence in every day life until the 2000’s. People got their news from the newspaper or the evening broadcast, as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the rest of the social media networks were something out of a sci-fi novel. The world could get by, for better or worse, without electricity.
These days, if the power went out I would be – for lack of a better word – screwed. My boyfriend and I do not have a landline in our apartment, since we both have cell phones. However, presuming the cell towers and reception aren’t impacted, my cell phone would only be useful until the battery died. And while I could go charge my battery in the car, I could only keep that up until I ran out of gas – which I would probably want to be conserving in case I needed to travel, as gas stations in the area are already reporting being sold out. My banking and nearly all forms of entertainment (for better or worse) are done electronically these days. Our daily delivery of mail consists mainly of flyers and other junk. A few years ago I switched from reading actual books to reading on my Kindle, iPhone, or iPad. Three devices loaded up with books could last me a while until the batteries die, or until I run out of books. Unfortunately for me, it’s more likely that I would run out of books before I ran out of batteries (especially on my Kindle which can last days without a charge) and if the Internet is down then I am out of luck.
Peter Gelzinis of the Boston Herald doesn’t seem to think it’s likely, however. Having lived through The Blizzard of 1978, he pointed out one key fact in his post – during the 1978 storm, there were no advanced warnings. In fact, only one meteorologist at the time (Harvey Leonard) correctly predicted the strength of the storm at a time when weather watching was much more primitive than it is today.
Unfortunately, as the 2007 storm proved, even with advanced warnings people in this area probably aren’t going to listen. And part of that goes back to the unpredictable nature of New England weather. Hurricane Sandy is a perfect example – we were warned to buy our supplies, hunker down, and prepare for the worst. And the worst did occur – in New York and New Jersey. Not here in Rhode Island, and definitely not in my particular area of Rhode Island, where there was barely any wind or rain. Because of incidences like that, people around here simply brush off severe weather warnings even though the broadcasters and government officials are trying desperately to get us to listen.
As for me – I listen. Being overly cautious and a rule/law abiding citizen is just part of my nature. Which is also the reason I am sitting at work today. My place of business isn’t closed today, and thus my attendance is required. So here I am. Hoping we’re released before things get really dicey, and hoping that once we are released I make it home safely. I’ve always been a bit envious of those who get to say they remember The Blizzard of ’78 but now, with my very own catastrophic blizzard approaching, I think they can have their once-in-a-lifetime memory. I’ll take a few snowflakes and a safe commute.