Central Indiana residents share stories of the Blizzard of 1978

Hoosiers remember it like it was yesterday.

It was then that Indianapolis National Weather Service forecasters Dennis McCarthy and Hobart Reeves issued the first-ever Blizzard Warning for the entire state of Indiana at 3:45 p.m. on Jan. 25. When that news came crackling through the police scanner in the Banner Graphic newsroom, everyone within earshot stopped in his or her tracks.

A heavy snow warning had been issued nearly 12 hours prior. Winds were only 12 mph at the time that warning went out, but winds would approach 50 mph or more by midnight, and continue through the morning of Jan. 27. Temperatures would plummet to a low of zero during the storm, and wind chills would approach -50.

Snowfall rates of nearly one-half to as much one inch per hour were not in and of themselves remarkable, but the duration of the heavy snow was. Significant snowfall lasted about 31 hours at Indianapolis, and would be followed by continued cold and high winds, hampering recovery and relief efforts, and leaving much of Indiana crippled for days.

In all, 15.5 inches of snow would fall at Indianapolis, which, combined with snow already on the ground, would bury the city under 20 inches of snow. In other areas, up to three feet of snow fell. Howling winds would push drifts up to as much as 20-25 feet. Visibilities would remain below a quarter-mile for 25 hours in the once-in-a-lifetime storm.

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Several Central Indiana residents shared their blizzard stories with the National Weather Service to help mark the 40th anniversary. However, the Weather Service did not release the names of those who submitted their memories of the Blizzard of 1978.

One Hoosier remembers “driving home to Bainbridge from Crawfordsville, and barely making it.”

Later that evening my fire phone rang, he said. It was the railroad company. They were requesting help in rescuing several people from an Amtrak train that had been stuck in a massive snow drift about two miles north of Bainbridge. We met at the fire station and then went to the grain elevator by the tracks. From there a train engine took about five firefighters at a time up to the scene.

I remember the wind blowing at about 30-40 mph. Someone said the wind chill was about -50.

When I jumped off the engine I was up to my waist in snow. We all made our way back to the car that everyone had been put into, there had been no heat for some time and the passengers were all bundled up in blankets. One of our firemen thought to cut a hole in the blanket and make a poncho. We the escorted each passenger back to the engine were they were taken back to our fire station to be checked out by our town doctor and an EMT.

The next evening we got a call of the beach house on fire at Van Bibber Lake. On a good day we could make it 15-20 minutes, not this time. Once we arrived the building was fully involved.

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I was a sophomore at Wabash College in January 1978 when the blizzard hit. Two distinct memories come from that colossal storm – still, by far, the most significant weather event of my life:

1) On that fateful Wednesday afternoon, Stan Wood of Channel 8 nervously described the impending snowstorm as a blizzard and first used the term “blizzard warning.” Having lived in Indiana all of my life, I had never heard that term before and have only once since (February 2016).

2) The local cable outlet in Crawfordsville positioned a camera in its office to look out on to Washington Street (U.S. 231) – the main thoroughfare in Crawfordsville. The camera showed continuous live shots throughout the 40-hour blizzard, as the wind howled, the snow raced horizontally, and snow drifts along the street continued to grow and grow and grow – with no cars anywhere in sight.

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I remember as a kid, the blizzard of ‘78. There was a huge snow drift in the front of our house and my sister and I were able to dig into it and make tunnels and rooms under this huge drift. Each day we were able to add more tunnels and rooms. Since school was out we had plenty of time.

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I was in college in Bloomington. A bunch of friends lived in a big old house, and we piled into a friend’s car (few of us even had cars then) and went to the grocery store while it was still snowing, right before they issued a blizzard advisory.

We made chili, drank lots of beer and wine, and listened to music for a couple days. It was great fun.

I have fond memories of the Blizzard of ’78. One of my friends went outside in her bikini and made snow angels. Also, the university was closed and we could walk up and down the street without traffic. We walked to the Marsh store where very little people were there. The Blizzard of ’78 was a great time.

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I have vivid memories of the Blizzard of ’78. I was 13, very active, but not very smart. Somehow I failed to close the garage door the night of the storm. It was a two-car job that faced south/southwest.

My father got me out of bed quite early the following morning to shovel the snow out of the garage. There was as much snow in there as there was on the driveway.

Good thing school was canceled for a few days, because that was how long it took. To this day my father blames me, and rightly so, for the spalling concrete on the garage floor.

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I vividly remember waking up and looking out my bedroom window and seeing nothing but white reflecting back at me. I went to all the windows on the same side of the house trying to look out and seeing nothing but white. What I didn’t know at the time (but found out later) was that the complete east and west sides of the house were buried in two massive snowdrifts thanks to the wind breaks.

Once we forced the back door open we looked to the west side of the house to find the garage door was covered and the snow had piled up to a depth of eight feet the length of the house. I finally found my car which was out by the street a few days (and several feet of snow) later. The engine compartment was packed with snow and frozen solid.

The worst part of this was we didn’t get to the store before the storm was in full fury and we had to walk to local Marsh store which somehow was open. It took 90 minutes to get there -- it was four blocks away. I stayed there and got what we needed and rested. It took two hours to get back. Things didn’t get back to normal in Greenfield for at least a month.

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I was a first-grader attending Tipton Community Schools (where I currently teach). I remember all the snow... the bitter cold and the drifts.

Once the sun finally came out after the snow stopped we took our sled inside to the upstairs of my grandma’s house, opened the window and sledded off the rooftop.

It was the best thing I have ever experienced, when it comes to winter.

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The wind began to howl when we went to bed that night. We hoped the power would stay on. At dawn on Thursday, it was quite apparent a blizzard was taking place. Of course, everything was closed and the TV told you to stay at home and off the roads.

Come Friday morning, the sun was shining and the wind was hardly blowing. Going outside, it was apparent that traffic was not moving and everything was closed. The snow depth was anything but uniform. In some places it was only a few inches deep and in others more than half a house high. The fence in the backyard was “gone.”

Fortunately, the power was still on. Soon we realized that we weren’t going to be dug out anytime some. One neighbor got on his snowmobile and went to the store for milk and bread. Of course, there wasn’t any.

While watching TV that day, the national news kept telling how bad things were in Illinois and Ohio, but never mentioned Indiana. Even Amtrak thought there was “no weather” in Indiana as it dispatched a train from Chicago to Indianapolis.

Just outside of Crawfordsville, the train ran into a “little weather problem” -- a 14-foot snow drift that stopped the train in its tracks near Bainbridge. This, of course, made instant national news and all of a sudden Indiana had a “snow problem.”