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Boston molasses flood photos1/8/2024 The Great Snow came on the heels of an already snowy winter, with several feet having already fallen on the region from storms in December and January. Smaller houses were often buried completely and could only be located by the smoke coming from their chimneys. Property damaged/destroyed: Much of the local livestock starved or froze to death.Ī series of snowstorms that for nearly a century afterward was referred to as “The Great Snow” blanketed New England with about five feet of snow, creating drifts so high that some residents could only exit their houses by climbing out of upper-story windows. Type of Storm: Unknown, several snowstorms over a nine-day period. The days that followed the storm have since passed into legend as "the week the state stood still." President Jimmy Carter declared portions of Rhode Island and coastal Massachusetts federal disaster areas, and the National Guard was sent in to assist with the massive clean-up effort. A traffic ban for eastern Massachusetts was in place for the rest of the week and the sight of pedestrians on skis and snowshoes became a common one. On I-95, over a dozen people died in their vehicles due to snow blocking exhaust pipes. After failing to heed the warning to leave they were trapped in the Garden for several days along with Garden employees, taking refuge in skyboxes and locker rooms.Īmong the most enduring images of the aftermath of the storm are the thousands of cars and trucks left abandoned on the highways of eastern Massachusetts. Among those that were stranded by the storm were several hundred fans attending the first round games of the Beanpot Hockey Tournament at the Boston Garden. The severity of the storm was largely unknown beforehand which led many residents to be caught unaware once it hit. The Northeastern United States Blizzard of 1978, often referred to more simply as the Blizzard of ’78, dumped a record 27.1 inches of snow on Boston with hurricane-force winds over the course of two days before the storm finally broke up. Property damaged/destroyed: Hundreds of homes and boats destroyed, seawalls broken, and beaches eroded.Ĭost of Damages: around $530 million ($500 million in Massachusetts), equivalent to over $2 billion today. Injured: around 4,500 (over 4,300 in Massachusetts) Type of Storm: Extra-tropical cyclone, nor’easter Southern view of cars stranded on Route 128 South during the Blizzard of 1978. The damage done to many of the trees during the storm was supposedly visible well into the 1950s. In Massachusetts, heavy rains caused rivers to flood and washed away bridges inland while the storm surge left Falmouth and New Bedford under several feet of water. New England’s fishing industry was hit particularly hard by the storm, with entire fleets being wiped out at once. Storm surges in Rhode Island wiped out entire communities along the coast. The storm produced sustained winds of up to 121 mph with gusts up to 125 mph and caused severe flooding all along the coast. Only the third hurricane to hit New England and the first since 1869, it is the most destructive and deadly storm in the region’s recent history. Due the speed of the storm it has also been referred to as “The Long Island Express.” It was the fastest moving hurricane in recorded history, traveling around 600 miles in 12 hours. The Great New England Hurricane made landfall on Long Island before moving up the East Coast through New England and into Quebec before finally dissipating. Property damaged/destroyed: 8,900 homes destroyed and over 15,000 damaged 2,605 boats destroyed and 3,369 damaged.Ĭost of Damages: estimated $306 million (over $5 billion today) Type of Storm: Hurricane, Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale
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