Indiana, USA (January 24, 1978) (submitted by Andy; added on 8/20/2000)
I was 11 years old when the great blizzard of '78 struck the mid-west. Here in Indiana we had only a few hours warning, I remember doing home work in front of the tv that evening when the first big warning came on and suddenly our quiet house was a flurry of activity with everyone moving around to check food and water supplies, batteries, and so forth. The next three days were at times spooky even for my age. Our dinning room windows were old tall windows that went from the floor to the 12 foot ceiling. They faced the east or south east and I recall our daily checks on how high the snow was piled on that side of the house...by the third day the snow had totally covered the windows. Everyone in our area pitched together to keep each other supplied and in touch. Though I was a young heart patient I remember taking my turn at shoveling the snow off the sidewalk, which at times looked like a tunnel. School was suspended for 16 days due to that three day storm. My parents have told me that the first night of the storm, as I slept, thunder and lightening came with the heavy snow. In our town, 23 inches of new snow fell during that storm, ontop of 16 inches of old snow. I have pictures of the dig out process where snow was piled so high that people standing next to the piles look like dwarfs.