Many Needed Help During Blizzard

The Blizzard of '78 lasted for nearly 33 hours, stranding more than 5,000 cars on major highways in New England.

Video

Blizzard Memories

NewsCenter 5's J.C. Monahan reported that drivers on Route 128 were overpowered and unprepared for the fast-moving storm. In an age before cell phones, the stranded motorists were really on their own.

Bruce Cook was a Red Cross volunteer who was sent to the Dedham Movie Theater, where stranded motorists were seeking shelter.

"I don't think most people expected to be here as long as they were," Cook said.

It would be two days before many would be home again. In the meantime, theater seats were their beds and the concession stand their kitchen.

"Most of the people in the shelter were good-natured about it," Cook said.

Twenty-five years later, Cook said he can't pass the cinema without remembering the hundreds of people stuck there.

"It was good to know that, collectively, a lot of people could do so much for so many other people," he said.

Along the coast, tides up to 16 feet came crashing over sea walls, destroying homes and forcing residents to paddle their way to safety.

The Sullivan family knows the power of the ocean well. Every summer, they head to their beach house in Scituate.

"We didn't realize the damage to the place and to all our neighbors until we got down here after the storm was over," Kevin Sullivan said.

Nothing could prepare them for what they saw. Their garage was gone, and neighbors' homes were blown about, one coming to rest in the Sullivans' back yard.

"It looked like 'The Wizard of Oz,'" Joanne Sullivan said. "The house was tilted, the furniture was all at an angle. It was pretty wild for a 10-year old."

The Sullivan beach house was still standing, but 3 feet of muddy water filled the first floor. The front stairs were gone, and a lot of work lay ahead. But the decision of whether or not to rebuild was an easy one.

"It's the place we all gather," Kevin Sullivan said. "We grew up there, our kids now are growing up there, so it's special."

Alice Donahue of Weymouth can't forget the Blizzard of '78. It's all in the scrapbook she created. Having lost her home to a fire the year before, Donahue immediately connected with the sense of loss around her.

"Every time a newspaper came out with pictures on the front, they were like, wow!" Donahue said. "And I thought, how can you throw these away?"

That's when her collection of clippings began. Now, it's a book filled with photos that capture the devastation and beauty that coexisted at the time.

"We were lucky we didn't lose any loved ones in my own family but other people did, and, I don't know, it just changed me," Donahue said.

Ninety-nine New Englanders lost their lives in the Blizzard of '78.