The Story of Two Blizzards
Written by Emma Moniz, Class of 2026
Last week, parts of New England broke records for how much snow fell during the “Blizzard of 2026.” New Bedford received an estimated 36 inches of snow, Fall River received around 41 inches of snow, and surrounding areas received a similar amount. While it may have seemed like a disaster for some, especially those who had to get to work, students enjoyed another week off from school on the tail of the week-long winter break. One thing that stood out regarding the snow storm, besides the obvious amount of snow, was the comparison to the “Blizzard of 78.”
The blizzard of 1978 was one for the books. Towns and cities were covered in snow. Most people were unable to leave their homes for days. It took around three days to uncover the streets and make them drivable again, leaving many people unable to go to work, and students unable to go to school. There were many similarities between these two major storms, including how they brought people together making their homes, streets and neighborhoods safe and manageable. I thought I would ask someone who lived through it what it was like. I looked high and low, and then I spoke to someone who remembers it vividly: my dad.
It is fitting, considering he was about the same age then as I am now.
“I was eighteen years old at the time, and I had never seen anything like it before,” he recalled. A buddy of mine’s family owned snowmobiles, so we worked with the city of Fall River using walkie talkies and the snowmobiles to bring nurses to work so they could make their shifts.”
It wasn’t all work, however. “While we were cleaning up the snow, we managed to build a snowman, rolling the snow all the way down the street. By the time we were finished, the snowman was bigger than us.”
It sounds like a truly remarkable time. Our own “Blizzard of ‘26” has resurrected many of his memories of that other time when our cities and towns were buried in snow.
Although the “Blizzard of ‘78” was bad, last week's blizzard was no joke. Massachusetts had over 200,000 people without power and heat throughout the storm. While there has not been talk amongst students regarding power outages, almost all of the students have one thing in common:they were snowed in. Abigail Urbina Lopez, a junior at GLCPS said, “my street was not cleared, so we couldn’t leave the house. We gradually shoveled out the driveway, however we have a wall of snow over six feet tall now.” This is what many students have been saying; that after the storm the one thing keeping them stuck was not being plowed out. Still, students here at GLCPS were happy to have had an extended February break.
People will compare these two blizzards for years to come but as terrible as blizzards may be, there are many positive things that came from both of these storms. Communities came together to help each other out, families got to spend time together, and most people got a break from our fast-paced lives. Hopefully, New England doesn’t see a blizzard this bad for many, many years. On a positive note, Spring is on its way!
Emma Moniz is a senior at GLCPS. As part of her senior internship program, she is writing news articles for and about the GLCPS community.
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