Six to 10 inches is a significant amount of snowfall, but will it drift to the height of what history recorded as the Great Blizzard of 1978? It doesn’t appear likely, though if 10 inches fell, it would be close. At least one blizzard report said Toledo had 13 inches of snow, but “less” fell in central Ohio.
However, according to a report from the National Weather Service, it’s difficult to say how much snow accumulated because a blizzard means there are also high winds and considerable drifting—in this case up to 25 feet high.
One blizzard wind gust at Cleveland Hopkins Airport was recorded at 82 miles an hour. The temperature dipped to near zero and wind chills were recorded at below -50 degrees. The blizzard, the worst winter storm in Ohio history, began in the predawn hours on Thursday, Jan. 26, 1978 and continued into the next day. A “normal pace” of life was not fully restored for five days.
According to a National Weather Service “Winter Chronicle” account, “Gov. James Rhodes activated the Ohio National Guard Thursday morning, opening armories for public shelter and calling the Guards for duty. By 28 January, 5,005 men and women of the Guard were on active duty. Most could not get to the armories until Friday but were then pressed into long hours of duty with heavy equipment clearing roads, assisting electric utility crews in getting to fallen wires, rescuing stranded persons in emergencies, and transporting doctors and nurses to hospitals. They used nearly 800 National Guard vehicles, including four-wheel drive trucks, ambulances, graders, and bulldozers.”
And locally? What was the impact?
Events of the blizzard were recorded in a 1978 issue of The Bellville Star. The paper said that the blizzard “piled up snow drifts as high as second story windows, froze water pipes in many homes, brought record low barometer readings of 28.55 locally, recorded high winds of 50 miles per hour, and left record snow depths of more than 20 inches on the ground.”
It caused heartbreak for one local family.
Judy Gillespie, of Butler, said it was a “horrible time.” She explained, “Our father died during the blizzard trying to help a friend with his tractor. They couldn’t get the squad through on 95 as the drifts were 10 feet high. My brothers went to Fredericktown by snowmobile to get the undertaker and bring him back to Snyder Funeral home in Bellville. There were no pleasant memories for our family from the blizzard of 1978.”
Fifty-one people died in Ohio as a result of the storm.
Debby Chapman Martinez lived in North Liberty at the time. “We were very much snowed in,” she said, “I had the flu. The fire department brought meds out for those that needed them, probably brought other things too. It seemed like a long time before we could get out on the roads again.”
In the Bellville and Butler area, the fire departments were certainly the “Guards” on duty. The Clear Fork Mobile Home Park, located between Bellville and Butler, was hit hard.
Firefighter from the Bellville-Jefferson Fire Department began evacuating the park as early as noon on Thursday when the power was out. The Star reported, “Temperatures in many trailers were 40 degrees or less and falling as a convoy headed for the park.”
Two snow plow trucks were used to clear the road to the trailer park. They were followed by a school bus that was used to evacuate residents who were then taken to the Bellville Elementary School for shelter. Local volunteers worked at the school to provide food and Templed Hills Camp supplied mattresses and blankets.
“The Worthington Township and Butler crews set up an evacuation center in the firehouse, and like others, worked around the clock to protect the stranded and evacuate the threatened,” according to the report.
The paper reported that as many as 23 snowmobiles were in use following the blizzard. Mowry Implements (not open today) loaned nine new snowmobiles delivered just the day before the storm and Dick Kuhn sold all of his snowmobiles when the storm hit.
At least one Mansfield resident used his own two legs.
“Steve remembers calling Freedom Trails to see if they were open. He then walked from Highland Ave. to downtown on the square to buy cross country ski’s and skied home down the middle of Park Ave. to Marion Ave. and back to Highland,” said Cindy Shasky.
“I lived in Crestline at the time and worked at PPG. My boss, a fellow worker, and I were on the phone trying to figure out how we might be able to all get to work together. We knew it was bad and didn’t think we should all attempt the drive on our own,” she said, “We didn’t realize how bad it really was and I was glad we didn’t go because a lot of workers couldn’t make it home from the midnight shift and spent a couple days there.”
Shasky also remembered going out on the treacherous roads and dodging a downed power line to transport her grandparents to her mother’s house because her mother had electricity and they didn’t. “There were four of us piled into the front, and only, seat in an El Camino. My grandpa is a big guy and I’m still not sure how we all fit,” she added.
At least one warm memory came from the blizzard. Lisa Lindeman Thorne said she was only five years old in 1978.
“But I remember my uncle Bernard Bowman coming to get us in his four-wheel drive at our house on [state Route] 13 and taking us to my great grandma Alice Lifer’s in Butler. She had fireplaces to keep us warm and we slept there with many, many other family members. I swear she slept sitting in a chair watching over us all as we camped on her floor,” Thorne said.
Events of the blizzard were recorded in a 1978 issue of The Bellville Star. The paper said that the blizzard “piled up snow drifts as high as second story windows, froze water pipes in many homes, brought record low barometer readings of 28.55 locally, recorded high winds of 50 miles per hour, and left record snow depths of more than 20 inches on the ground.”
