Looking back on 77-78 storms

RIB’S RAMBLINGS

Mark Ribble

Seeing what the eastern seaboard of the United States is going through this week, I couldn’t help but be brought back to storms of the past that stand out in my memory.

We’ve been relatively blizzard-free over the past few years in this area, with nothing comparing to the two big storms of my teenage years.

Of course, those two successive storms would be the blizzard of 1977 and the blizzard of 1978.

The 1977 storm, as I remember, was a doozy, bringing record snowfalls and frigid temperatures, which had been around for a few months. Lake Erie had frozen solid by the end of December 1976 and the cold temperatures hit early in November and lasted all winter.

By January 28, winds out of the southwest hit 70 km per hour, with gusts of 100. The already existing snow cover was blowing everywhere and this area was hit hard, but not nearly as hard as the Niagara region.

Cars were buried in snow drifts from here to Toronto and beyond. People were stranded on the highways and in homes of strangers.

That weekend storm was a record for many regions of Ontario.

As we put that storm in the rear view mirror, nobody could predict what we were in for in late January 1978.

Four people died in this area and 35,000 homes were without power for many hours, as the storm of the century hit us with full force.

I was a 16-year-old, minding my own business, and hoping for a couple of days off school.

I believe it was a Wednesday, so we were up early and I remember it starting out innocently — with heavy rain.

My mother was working for a local couple as a homemaker, helping the farmer take care of his terminally ill wife at home. Despite the forecast, she ventured out in the morning in our black 1971 Ford LTD.

During the early morning hours, the temperature dropped considerably, The boats could be taken through the placid canal or out into the rougher waters of Lake Erie. This photograph of an unidentified family, standing outside the Cedar Beach Drug Store, was taken in turning the rain into snow and the wind the late 1940s or early 1950s picked up to the point that you could not see anything.

I remember my mother calling home and saying she was going to try to get home, in spite of the crazy weather.

We waited for quite awhile and heard nothing.

A few hours went by and the phone rang. It was my mom, who had become stranded in the blizzard on the same road from which she was travelling. After trying to get un-stuck, she waited to see if help would arrive.

It arrived in the person of a nearby resident, who took her into their home and warmed her up. She ended up staying there for two days until we could get down there to pick her up.

This scene played out all over this region, from people being stranded to snowmobiles rescuing people and transporting expectant mothers to the hospital.

When all was said and done, there was literally snow to the rooftops in most neighbourhoods and the Point Pelee Drive/Robson Road corridor was a solid block of snow.

I think anyone who lived through that storm of ’78, remembers it well and has their own story to tell.

The current generation could probably not ever imagine a storm of that magnitude and let’s hope they don’t have to experience it.