Blast From the Past recaps Reflector's blizzard coverage from 1978

Each day, Norwalk Reflector Publisher Andy Prutsok compiles a recap of the top stories that appeared in the newspaper on that date in a particular year.Several years ago, he featured the post-blizzard coverage from 1978.(NOTE: In today's issue, the Norwalk Reflector included a special section about the blizzard's 40th anniversary, complete with area residents' accounts and pictures as well as the newspaper's coverage from 1978. You can pick up a copy of the issue at the Reflector's office at 61 E. Monroe St. or from the stores and vending machines where the newspaper is sold.)Here are some of the highlights from the Reflector's blizzard coverage: JAN. 27, 197852 dead in wake of raging 2-day stormSnow stopped falling today in the Midwest, Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions leaving behind death and devastation from a raging two-day snowstorm which killed at least 52 persons and virtually shut down the region.The National Guard was activated in four states. Thousands of people were stranded or without power. An Amtrak train was stopped dead on the tracks by drifted snow. Flooding compounded problems in some areas.Ohio Gov. James Rhodes, his voice quivering with emotion, asked residents of his state to help each other because, "Ohio is in trouble."President Carter declared a federal emergency for Ohio and Rhodes ordered 3,000 National Guardsmen into the snow clogged state's highways and towns to help with evacuation."They're helpless," he said of people stranded by the storm. "They're victims. They want mercy. They want help and we can't get to them."Find man frozen in area fieldThe body of an 80-year-old man who perhaps had tried to escape his frigid home was found frozen in a field off Ohio 547 today.The man, whose name was withheld pending notification of next of kin, was the first known victim of this area's worst blizzard ever.Sheriff John Borgia said the body was found by a neighbor and reported at 12:55 p.m. It was found just west of Dogtown Road near Bellevue Reservoir No. 5.National Guard bulldozers were trying to reach the area this afternoon, Borgia said.Thousands of area homes were without heat Thursday night as Ohio's worst blizzard ever shrieked into its second day.Winds gusting up to 60 miles per hour cut visibility to almost zero and stopped all but a few rescue operations. The winds had subsided by this morning and snow stopped after about nine inches had fallen.National Guardsmen and authorities stationed at the Huron County Sheriff's Department said the toll of injuries and more possible deaths cannot be counted until the blizzard ends and rural areas can be reached.About 90 calls for help came to the sheriff's department from pregnant women, crippled elderly persons, stranded motorists, families with infants and persons needing immediate medic al attention.Most of the calls were in vain. The fury of the storm squelched all but one Guard rescue effort. The blizzard stopped even bulldozers and vie-ton Army trucks.Hundreds of Huron County residents in homes without electricity huddled with neighbors for the most elemental of purposes: Survival. A family on River Road north of Milan reported it was breaking up furniture o burn in a washtub to keep warm.The one Guard rescue required about 12 hours to cover five miles. Residents and stranded motorists in 14 homes along Ohio 547 and Town Line 32 southwest of Monroeville, had been without heat since 5 p.m. Thursday. A bulldozer left the Guard Armory Thursday afternoon and slugged its way into Monroeville, where it was followed by volunteers driving four-wheel drive vehicles.At 7 p.m. as the bulldozer approached Farr Road, a gust of wind snapped a 220,000-volt power line directly overhead. Guardsmen said the driver through he was as good as dead. Miraculously, part of the line fell ahead of the bulldozer and part behind. The lines spat and snaked for hours until power was cut off and the bulldozer was able to battle onward.Shortly after midnight, the rescuers encounters a 14-foot snowdrift sealing the entrance to Town Line 32. The bulldozer battered through the he drift and the rescuers finally transported some of the residents to homes with some form of heat.Don't drive, police pleadLawmen and snow removal officials today were pleading with residents not to drive on roads.One warned that the task of clearing the highways outside towns may take three or four days.Sheriff John Borgia said motorists who hamper rescue operations or drive unnecessarily will be cited.Drifts up to 14-feet high have been encountered by National Guard bulldozers.Huron County roads are "one hell of a mess," said assistant Supt. Mike Sweet this morning. He said two county snow plows are still stuck on Washington Road west of Norwalk after they helped free an ambulance and fire department truck.Families cope without heatPower went out in the Old Plank Road area north of Norwalk at 5:15 a.m. Thursday and was still off this morning.Mrs. Robert Sukke, a Reflector composing room employee who lives on Old Plank Road, said they have no word on when service is likely to be restored.Power failure has meant lack of heat and water service in most of the homes in the area. The water comes from wells with electric pumps.The Sukkes have an oil furnace in their home, but without power the electric pump for the oil was out of service. They stayed in their home until 4 p.m. Thursday when the temperature had dropped to 48 degrees inside the house. They decided to go to a neighbor, Mr. and Mrs. Lyle Latham, who have a wood-burning stove in their basement.* * *JAN. 30, 1978Editor's Note: The Reflector's microfilm files do not show an issue published between Jan. 27 (above) and Jan. 30 (below).'Sharing' is key to survival in storm's aftermathAVERY – Certain-Teed Products Corp., opened its plant's doors to 200 stranded motorists and truck drivers during the blizzard and its aftermath. Some of the truck drivers were still there this morning.The plant is on U.S. 250 near exit seven of the Ohio Turnpike.Robert Sears, a truck driver for Kroger Co., this morning was full of praise for the company."They gave us a warm place to stay, access to telephones, rest rooms and showers and even gave the truck drivers fuel oil with no concern about being paid. Those people were great and really deserve credit," said Sears.Sears was on his way from Solon to Port Clinton with a load of produce when his truck got stuck on the Ohio Turnpike just above the Sandusky-Norwalk exit about 9:15 a.m. Thursday. The National Guard rescued him about 3:30 a.m. Friday and took him and other stranded motorists — including families with children — to the Certain-Teed plant."There were hot food vending machines in the plant but they were emptied in about 20 minutes," said Sears. "Some of those people had had nothing to eat all day Thursday," He said that the Red Cross was supposed to send food but when it failed to arrive the National Guard asked what he had had in his truck.He told them 170 tins of bread, cheese, eggs and fruits and vegetables. Sears called the company to see if it was all right to give the food away."There was no hesitation," reported Sears. "I have worked for the company for 18 years and I was really proud of them. There was no concern about getting paid."Charles Smith, manager of Certain-Teed, said Lawson's allowed one of their drivers to share the milk in his truck and an Allied Vans driver dragged out furniture pads from his truck for people to sleep on……Smith said paper mill superintendent Bob Weidinger and about 34 Certain-Teed employees were stranded at the plant when the blizzard hit early Thursday morning.Smith, who lives in Norwalk, gave permission for opening the plant to the stranded travelers.Three lives lost; power restored in countyWith the help of federal dollars, area residents and authorities were digging out from the worst blizzard in Ohio's history.The snowstorm claimed the lives on one elderly man in Huron County and two persons in Erie County. The body of Edward Heyman, 83, of Ohio 547 southwest of Monroeville, was found in a field near his home Friday. More bodies may be found during the snow removal.Electrical power has been restored to all but a few rural areas of the county. Those areas have been without heat and power since Thursday morning.Dozens of private contractors have been hired to help area teams clear snow from highways before a deadline for federal reimbursement passes. The U.S. Disaster Assistance Administration will pay local governments for three-fourths the cost of all private contracts for snow removal between midnight Friday and midnight Tuesday……Heyman, a retired farmer and bachelor, froze to death during the blizzard after leaving his home apparently to walk to a neighbor's house. The coroner ruled the death accidental due to exposure."We think he lost his way," Coroner Dr. William Holman said. Heyman had perhaps set out for the Stanley Bollenbacher residence about a quarter-mile away. Bollenbacher reportedly had told Heyman over the phone to stay in bed at his home and not venture out in the storm, but the elderly man may have misunderstood.Bellenbacher and another neighbor found Heyman's body about 15 yards off the road.Blizzard fails to stop two weddingsBlizzard or no blizzard, at least two couples exchanged wedding vows as planned in Norwalk this weekend.Norwalk School Supt. James Rubright and Deborah McWilliams, Huron, were married Saturday in St. Peter Lutheran Church.Friday night Sharon Turini, a home economics teacher at Norwalk High School, and Lee Millhouse, a Huron County Sheriff's Department dispatcher, were married in St. Paul Catholic Church.The couple had planned on 350 wedding guests but only 35 made it. The bride's family made it to Norwalk from Pennsylvania in a four-wheel drive jeep.5 workers survive incredible ordeal in Highway GarageCarl Frate was only 200 feet away from work Thursday morning. But it might as well have been 200 miles.Frate, timekeeper at the state highway garage on Dublin Road, spent almost 16 hours huddled in his car from the fury of the blizzard. The car was in a trailer court a snowball's throw away from the garage.While Frate watched his gasoline needle fall, his family in New London and four men stranded at the garage tried frantically to locate him. They had just about given up when a man who said he was Frate pounded the east door of the garage at 8:15 p.m.The workers saw a figure covered with snow. Underneath was Carl Frate.Frate is one of five state highway department workers whose stories about the Blizzard of '78 will be told by grandchildren for generations.The others are Walt Stoddard, Don Cole, Albert Miller and Supt. Melvin Robinson, all of Norwalk. Robinson even said he wants to write a book.The stories will be about how men responsible for fighting snow became its helpless victims.Robinson told part of his story this morning. He told of him and Stoddard tying themselves together with a rope and foraging for food in trailers. Once they passed within a few yards of Frate and his car. They saw nothing. Sometimes they couldn't see each other.He told of the wind ripping off part of the garage roof and cutting off electricity and telephone service.He told of six snowplows trapped inside the garage because the overhead door was frozen shut. Robinson said he and his men were prepared to drive the plows through the door to escape what could have become an icy tomb.50 travelers housed in emergency quarters hereTwo doctors, a husband and wife from Chicago, drove to New Hampshire on a skiing vacation in search of snow. They didn't find it there, but they sure found it in Norwalk.Mr. and Mrs. Dale Berner took in the stranded couple, and two other persons, who were part of at least 50 persons taken in by local agencies in the wake of the storm.The couple said it was raining in New Hampshire when they got there, so they had headed back for Chicago. They were waylaid by the storm in Norwalk.St. Peter Lutheran Church had about 33 visitors Friday night, and a few less on Saturday night. The Salvation Army had 15 people Friday night, and 12 Saturday night. An undetermined number of other stranded motorists and local residents without heat were put up in area homes.* * *JAN. 31, 1978Hungry residents mob city marketsNorwalk shoppers Monday invaded city grocery stores and bought up all the staples in sight.For the first time in days, most stores were relatively well-stocked with milk, eggs, bread, canned goods and frozen foods.But by late afternoon the grocery glut had already reduced food supplies, in some cases to the point where grocers had to limit the purchases of bread and milk.One supermarket manager said his customers were "panic buying."Perhaps snow flurries that have followed last week's blizzard are scaring residents into thinking the improbable the blizzard of '78 can happen again. Apparently, no one wants to be caught short of food again.Kenneth Felder, manager of the Kroger Co. supermarket on Milan Avenue, said some buyers wanted as many as eight gallons of milk and 12 loaves of bread. He said he had to put a limit on the purchases. Food deliveries at Kroger are almost up to date, with more deliveries expected this week.Jack Crow, manager of Schild's IGA, also on Milan Avenue, said "We had to limit the bread because they were really grabbing at it."Bread and milk were delivered Monday, Crow said, but supplies did not last very long.The first bread truck since last Wednesday finally arrived Sunday at the T&A Thrif-T-Mart on Benedict Avenue. Other food and dairy trucks arrived Monday, but it was a race against eager buyers."I can't say it is back to normal here because we have just an unbelievable number of people in the store," said T&A manager Dan Reeves Monday afternoon.Chuck Harman, owner of Chuck's Super Value on East Main Street, predicted that the store would be low on staples today because of the flood of customers Monday.The Whittlesey Avenue A&P was out of milk and eggs Monday. The store was open Sunday but no delivery trucks arrived.How about those guys who repaired power lines!Villains became heroes after the Blizzard of '78 had cut electricity to 10,000 homes in Ohio Edison's Bay Division.Eight Edison linemen based in Norwalk were part of the force which braved incredibly lousy weather to restore power and heat the blizzard had taken away Thursday.They dressed in ski masks, goggles and layers of clothing. They protected themselves from electrocution as well as the blizzard. Their eyebrows and hair froze. Their repair trucks followed huge payloaders through the snowdrifts to reach substations and downed power lines.The power poles were coated with ice. The linemen couldn't see the tops of the poles from the ground. While the blizzard blasted them with snow and wind gusting to 75 miles per hour, they climbed the poles or crawled into buckets to be lifted to the top.Once they got there they couldn't see the ground.Their names are foreman Jack Edwards, linemen Robert Spettle, John Lane, Gerald Skinner, John Schaffer, Troy Gibson, Richard Shaffer and Donald Bahnnsen. They are but eight of a force of 75 Edison workers who did their jobs while snow and wind wrote their way into the books as Ohio's worst blizzard ever.City gets help on snow removalThe city has hired about 10 area contractors to help with snow removal, and the city will be reimbursed most of the cost by the federal government.All streets are passable, according to Mayor Wayne Goodsite, and many of the alleys have been plowed out.City crews, with the help of contractors, concentrated on removing snow along Main Street and Whittlesey and Benedict Avenues in the business section on Monday, clearing snow from parking space areas. The crews are working today to clear snow along the sides of the streets that feed into Main Street and the city parking lots.Schools smarting from stormFour area schools remained closed today in the aftermath of last week's blizzard.There were no classes today in the Plymouth and Monroeville districts, nor at Ehove and Pioneer Joint Vocational schools.Closings were ordered in the districts because some rural roads were still plugged with snow, and in some cases, to allow repairs of damage to buildings and heating systems. Frozen water lines burst after heating systems were knocked out by the power failures. Supt. Gale Leimbach of Pioneer said damage there will run into the thousands of dollars.* * *FEB. 1, 1978Trucker tells how he survived six days in snowdriftTrucker James Truly has a new version of the popular truck drivers' song, "Six Days on the Road." His rendition goes, "Six Days in the Snow..."Tuesday he finally was rescued. Doctors said he was in amazingly good health."I don't know what day today was, but I feel great," declared Truly, 42, of Cleveland, who has a wife and two children.Truly had been hauling a load of steel from Cleveland to Mansfield when he got caught in last Thursday's blizzard on Ohio 13 near Mansfield."The engine stopped," said Truly, recalling the ordeal. "I turned on the CB, but couldn't reach nobody. There was no use of me getting out cause it was 5 a.m. and the snow was blowing so bad you couldn't see nothing. If I walked around, I'd just get blown away. I knew I'd be protected from the wind inside."I climbed up in the bunk, put my feet in an old curtain up there and had one blanket to get under."Truly fell asleep awhile and when he woke up discovered a snowdrift had covered his truck."I couldn't see nothing," he said. "It was all dark."Truly then prepared for a long stay."I had a hard hat with me and I could get the window down some and scoop up some snow in the hat. I'd just sit there and eat snow for awhile till my mouth wasn't dry anymore. Then I'd go to sleep, but get cold and wake up and do it again.""I prayed and I hoped I would come out of it. All I could do was wait and wait.Finally, late Tuesday morning, Truly's brother, Don, led a rescue team that spotted a radio antenna sticking up from the snow and started digging."They came beating on the top of the roof and I beat back," said Truly. "I thought, 'Thank God,'"Federal snow removal ends in city getting 'shafted,' says GoodsiteMayor Wayne Goodsite said Tuesday communities such as Norwalk are getting "shafted" because the federal government has stopped paying the bills for snow removal.Huron County communities began paying the entire cost of removing snow from their streets at midnight Tuesday. But it won't cost the townships or county a dime.Under a program run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal government will pay private contractors to clear county and township roads for two-way traffic.Area cities and towns aren't eligible because their main thoroughfares are already cleared for two-way traffic, said a Corps spokesman.Between Friday and midnight Tuesday, a separate program administered by the U.S. Disaster Assistance Administration financed 75 percent of snow removal costs in any political subdivision which applied. A condition was that the snow removal had to "save lives or protect public health and safety," according to the Ohio Disaster Services Administration.Officials in area cities and towns this week were at first told they qualified for the Corps program. Goodsite and Willard City Manager Paul Capelle even signed papers Tuesday releasing the federal government from liability in snow removal accidents.Later Tuesday Corps field representatives at the Huron County Highway Department called the city officials and told them there had been a mistake. "There was a misunderstanding," field representative Larry Baker said. "It was partly our fault and partly in Columbus.Deputy County Engineer Urban Livengood Jr. said the Corps kind of misinformed me." The Corps had asked him Monday to tell county, city, village and township officials that they were eligible for the Corps' snow removal program.Goodsite pointed out that the federal government gave Cleveland $500,000 for snow removal after Mayor Dennis Kucinich had visited president Carter. "It's the little communities that get shafted every time," Goodsite said.City folks just don't realize plight of rural areasA rural Norwalk woman thinks city folk often fail to understand the plight of rural residents in the aftermath of last week's blizzard."We have ten feet of snow around our house and the road to Norwalk is one lane. Coaches are calling the kids saying 'come to basketball practice or cheerleading practice.' No one seems to understand how bad it is out here," says Mrs. Gilbert Mainzer Jr., who lives on U.S. 250 just north of Dublin Road.The home is in the Western Reserve School District, but four of the five Mainzer children attend school at St. Paul's in Norwalk. Normally they ride a Western Reserve bus to the Western Reserve High School and then the Western Reserve bus delivers them to St. Paul's.Tuesday Western Reserve schools were closed so buses weren't running, but St. Paul's was in session.Mrs. Mainzer said St. Paul Elementary School officials have told her they don't expect her younger children attending classes there to be in school when Western Reserve buses don't run.The problem is, however, that the kids get behind if they don't go and then they are upset," said Mrs. Mainzer. "I can't get my car out of the garage to drive the kids to school."— Compiled by Andy Prutsok