On This Day in the Old West: March 11

 On March 11, we have any number of events occurring in the United States during the 1800s. We’ll focus today on 1888 and the Great Blizzard, or Great White Hurricane. This was one of the most severe (recorded) blizzards in American history and paralyzed the East Coast from Chesapeake Bay to Maine, as well as the Atlantic provinces of Canada. This blizzard is not to be confused with the blizzard that struck the Great Plains in January of the same year, which is referred to as the Schoolhouse Blizzard or the Children’s Blizzard.

At the time of the Great White Hurricane, approximately one in four Americans lived in the area between Washington, DC, and Maine. This was the area affected by the blizzard, so an enormous number of people were affected by the storm. 200 people were killed in New York City alone, and it was estimated that more than 400 died up and down the Eastern Seaboard (including 100 sailors). Many people, unfamiliar with blizzard conditions, tried to report to their jobs only to be stranded or forced to turn back. There were reports of people collapsing in massive snowdrifts, only to freeze to death. Among these were New York’s Republican Party leader (and US presidency aspirant), Senator Roscoe Conkling. Mark Twain was one of thousands camping out in New York hotel lobbies, awaiting the passage of the worst of the storm. As the weather worsened throughout the 12^th, workers were stranded on the streets, on trains, and at their jobs. Wall Street was shut down for three days because only 30 out of 1,000 employees were able to fight their way through the storm to work. Even the Brooklyn Bridge closed. Saloons, hotels, and even prisons overflowed with people seeking shelter from the storm.

 

Snowfall of between 10 to 58 inches was reported in parts of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and winds of over 45 miles per hour created snowdrifts more than 50 feet high. Hundreds of boats sank along the Atlantic Coast as the winds whipped the sea into a frenzy. In addition, thousands of farm (and wild) animals froze to death during the blizzard. Railroads were shut down and people were confined to their homes for up to a week. Up to 15,000 New Yorkers were stranded in elevated trains. One train was derailed, killing several passengers and crew. Exposed railway and telegraph lines were disabled, and this provided impetus to move those valuable infrastructures underground. This was also where the push for underground trains began, likely from those 15,000 stranded New York passengers. Within ten years, work had begun on the subway system still in effect in that city.

 

Just before the Great Blizzard, the weather in New England was unseasonably mild, with temperatures hovering in the mid 50s. On March 10. However, on the 11^th, Arctic air from Canada swooped down to collide with the warm Gulf Stream air, causing temperatures to plummet. Most winter storms in the Northeast are preceded by an outbreak of cold air, usually centered in New England or southern Canada. There was no cold air mass in place before this storm. Another problem was the fact that the storm became stationary and actually made a counterclockwise loop off the coast of southern New England while maintaining its peak intensity—instead of following the normal southwest-to-northeast path that severe winter storms tend to follow in the area. Heavy rains turned to snow, and hurricane-force winds howled. The blizzard began in earnest around midnight on March 12 and continued without respite for a full day and a half. When New York City residents awoke on March 12, whiteout conditions existed throughout the city. On the 13^th, temperatures in New York dropped to 6 degrees F during the storm, still the lowest ever measured there so late in the season.

 

The storm was even worse north and east of New York City. Fifty trains were stranded between the city and Albany, as well as on Long Island, in New Jersey, and Connecticut. Many were derailed trying to plow through drifts measuring up to 38 feet (in a Connecticut railroad cut). Many of the 200 deaths outside of New York City were from passengers and crew of stranded trains attempting to walk to nearby towns when their train became stalled or derailed. Ships at sea foundered, lost to 90-mile-per-hour gusts, massive waves, and ice accumulation on decks that caused the top-heavy ships to roll over.

 

This blizzard was the first widely photographed natural disaster in United States history. The Great Blizzard’s impact was so great that survivors met yearly to mark the date until 1969. If you’re interested in more information, a good source is Blizzard! The Great Storm of ’88 by Judd Caplovich, VeRo Publishing Co, 1987. Your characters may have been on the Northeast Coast to experience the blizzard firsthand, or may have known someone who did, perhaps even someone who perished in the storm. Even in the West, people would have read and heard news of the disaster, giving you a nice little tidbit of history to add background to your story.

 

J.E.S. Hays

www.jeshays.com

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