Winter Storm
The white storm that I was caught in happened twenty-seven years ago. The natural disaster I refer to struck on Friday, January 28, 1977, "The Blizzard of '77", or as author Erno Rossi, M.A. termed it"White Death". What happened on that Friday so long ago was actually a winter hurricane. It had been such a cold, brutal winter. Lake Erie had been frozen solid by Christmas. With extremetemperature and record snowfall, the snow had piled up on top of the ice. So as the 50 mile an hour wind swept across Lake Erie, it blew the powdery snow off the lake, and into Buffalo and the surrounding counties. Into my county it came with a vengeance. I was working as an office clerk at a local linen factory. At that time I did not have my license to drive, so I had to depend on others for my transportation. On this particular day it was my Dad who drove me to work, and who would also drive me home. As we went to work that day it had been snowing heavily. Note enough for us hearty Upstate New Yorkers to stay home though. As the morning had progressed, so had the snow and the wind. My Dad had called me to let me know that he was leaving work early, everyo
Either staying in strangers homes, or staying in office buildings , churches. I would roll my window down and pop my head out to see if we were still on the road, but that did little good. My Dad came and picked me up at about 12:00 noon. It seemed we were alone in this white vacuum. We explained to her our dilemma, and without hestiation she allowed us to come in stay until we could make alternate arrangements. There he told what we must have already known, that the road ahead was impassable, we would need to seek shelter. Others, twenty-nine others who had stayed in their cars that first night died. Finally, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, only two mile from home, my Dad car stalledfor the last time. It had taken us almost 4 hours to go only 4 miles. When I say inched I mean it literally. The snow drifts were so high it looked as though we were looking down into a small valley. As we sped home, we passed many buried cars.
Common topics in this essay:
Oakfield York,
Lake Erie,
Upstate Yorkers,
Kathleen Hollabaugh,
White Death,
Rossi MA,
lake erie,
home dad,
white storm,
stay home,
snow mobile,
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Acceptance Essays
