The weather watching system has much improved over the years. The night before the blizzard I stopped in town for a bit, at the local watering hole. Bar tender told me I'd better get for home, there was a blizzard coming. There was nothing aboutthis on the 6:00 p.m. news, other than we may get some snow.
At tjhis time, it was 52º and raining. The top local forecaster at the time was telling viewers he wasn't sure what we were going to get. In his 30 years of forecasting, he'd never seen the barometer drop that low, and as fast, as it was at the present time. All he would say is, we were in for a rough storm. This was approx. 10:45 p.m. So went home ,and hit the sheets. Still raining, and still 52º.
At approx. 2:30 a.m. got the call to come to work. Night watchman told me to be careful, we were having a blizzard. Half groggy, I told him I'd be on my way shortly. I then realized the power was out, and there was a terrible howling outside. Took 4 hours to go 10 miles, but finally made it.
Spent 5 days away from home, before making it back.
We were pretty fortunate to have a National Guard Construction unit in the County, or so we thought. They had like 8, D-7 dozer's, and about as many large front end loader's. Not a one would start... After 4 days, they did manage to get one of the loaders started, but they sent it up to I-70 to work up there.
If it hadn't been for some of the well to do farmer's in the area, we'd have been screwed. Some had large tractor's with snow blowers. I do recall going out one state route they has made a pass through. We had the newest truck in the garage, a '78, 1800 International. On much of the road, the snow was higher than the cab on the truck, where it had drifted.
Hate to keep rambling on, but amazing how something like that will leave an impression on you. Wouldn't have passed on the experience for anything, but don't want to go through another...