Please take the blizzard warnings being issued for this week seriously! We are fortunate to have early warning systems in place now, but it was not the case in the Blizzard of 1978. We need to take heed of and learn from the 1978 experience. Taken from Wikipedia, here is some history to make us think ahead and prepare for the coming storm:
"One of the major problems with the Blizzard of 1978 was the lack of foreknowledge about the storm's severity. Weather forecasting in New England is difficult, and meteorologists had developed a reputation as being inaccurate. Forecasting techniques and technology had improved dramatically in the 1970's, but the public was still quite skeptical. Snow failed to arrive in Monday's pre-dawn hours as predicted, and many locals felt it to be another failed forecast — despite the accuracy of National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters' predictions concerning the Great Blizzard — and they went to work and school as normal. Because of this, people had neither time nor incentive to prepare. The region was already reeling after storms in January 1978 that left nearly two feet of snow in some areas of New England, and had caused the collapse of the roof of the Hartford Civic Center.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts had a system for notifying major employers to send employees home early in the event of heavy storms. Thousands of employees were sent home starting in the early afternoon of February 6, but thousands more were still caught by the storm. Some did not make it home for several days.
We can learn from the experience of the 1978 storm and prepare well for this one.
Photo Source: Retroplanet
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