35 Years Later: The Blizzard of '78

GRANBY, Mass. (WWLP) - 35 years ago New England was in the middle of a huge blizzard that is still worthy of being talked about today.

The blizzard of 78 killed 73 people in Massachusetts and cost 500 million dollars of damage in Massachusetts.

• Photos: Blizzard of 1978

Even though western Massachusetts wasn't hit the hardest, it's not hard to find people who remember the "week the state stood still."

The “ great northeast blizzard of 1978 ” arrived February 5th and finally pulled out on the 7th. Leaving death, flooding, damage and plenty of snow that took many days to clean up.

During the blizzard of 78 the Springfield area received between about 14-15 inches of snow, but it was much worse to our east where they got as much as two to three feet. Plus snow drifts.

On Route 128 in the Boston area, 3000 cars and 500 trucks were stranded as people abandoned their vehicles with snow falling too quickly to plow.

“The blizzard of 78 was featured by very heavy snow for a period of about 4-5 hours the snowfall came down at a rate of 2 inches per hour, 2-3 inches per hour,” said Curt Osgood, a meteorologist at Westover Air Reserve Base.

Coastal flooding and strong winds were also an issue, but it's the amount of snow that Howard Hastie, of Granby, remembers. He lived in Waltham, Massachusetts at the time.

"I remember seeing the snow above my head, plowed on each side. So it was a tunnel down the road. Just about all the way down to main street. It was just snow forever," said Hastie.