December, 1970 - Blizzard Remembered
The worst blizzard that I was out in was in December, 1970. I do not remember the date. I spent so much time on the internet last evening looking for information on it. I remember it as being very bad, however, I found a list of bad Northland storms, listed chronologically, and it was not listed. I don’t know why, it came up in a hurry, don’t believe it was predicted, we had high winds, lots of snow and people got caught not being able to get home. I was one that got caught. I found a web site where I could look at old newspapers, and thought I would find it there. However, to look at the newspaper, I had to “subscribe” to a trial subscription for 6 months, and it wasn’t cheap. So I didn’t. It then occurred to me that I could go to the library and find the newspapers from that month and year, for free. So, I finally gave up, and guess I will just rely on my memory. Do any of you readers remember this one, or is my memory wrong, and filtered by the fact that it was the FIRST one I experienced here? (Maybe that's it).
In December of 1970, I worked as a secretary in an office in The Board of Trade Building, downtown Duluth. I drove a 1968 Ford Mustang that was horrible at getting around in the snow. We had someone from Chicago visiting that day and we all took her out for lunch. A storm was not predicted. It was dry and cold when we left for lunch. When we came out, it was snowing and blowing. It came up so fast, we had a horrible walk back to the office. The wind was whipping and snow coming down fast. Of course, I didn’t have boots, and wasn’t dressed properly for any snowstorm. We got back to the office, and continued to work. We saw the snow coming down from our 4th floor windows. It’s the first time I ever remembered hearing thunder and seeing lightening at the same time it was snowing. By the time I left work, got to the car, the lot was chocked full of snow, my car got stuck, I wasn’t able to get out. I came back into the office and the person that was there from Chicago offered that I could stay with her in her hotel room. Since I wasn’t dressed to walk home and my husband couldn’t come to get me, I took her up on her offer. We got in one of the other staff’s cars to try to get to the hotel, and the car got stuck. We ended up walking to the hotel, we were all soaked wet by the time we got there. It was so bad. The hotel she was at was the Radisson, which was about a block and ½ west. The four men in the office lived quite a ways out of town, and ended up not being able to get home. They all joined us at the hotel, where we ate supper, and after spent the evening in the hotel lounge and looking out the windows at the blizzard that shut down the town. It was like the other day, no cars or people on the streets, and people staying over in the hotels because they couldn’t get home. The Radisson Hotel had a revolving restaurant at the top and watching the blizzard from up there was a beautiful sight. The Radisson was one of the newest buildings downtown. It provides a view of the harbor, the Aerial Lift Bridge and it was a great place to be watching a blizzard.
That was my first experience of a blizzard in Duluth. When looking at the list of bad storms in Duluth, it listed winters of 1995 – 96, and 1996-1997 as being the worst winters for snow storms in Duluth, in recent times. It named the November 9, 1913 storm, as the worst November storm ever on the Great Lakes. That blizzard had 62 mi. per hr. winds in Duluth and 3 ships were lost on Lake Superior.
The other bad blizzard that I know all of us most recently remember, of course, is the Oct. 31 – Nov. 3, 1991 Halloween Blizzard. We got over 37 inches of snow in Duluth. We had nasty wind chills, deep drifts, and many roads were closed for days. This was listed it as one of the largest and longest lasting blizzards in state history.
We really haven’t had a bad blizzard since the 1991 Halloween Blizzard, until this past week, but this past one we didn’t get the amount of snow or the nasty wind chills that the Halloween Blizzard gave us. That blizzard holds many records. Look at my post after this one, and I will write about that blizzard.
In December of 1970, I worked as a secretary in an office in The Board of Trade Building, downtown Duluth. I drove a 1968 Ford Mustang that was horrible at getting around in the snow. We had someone from Chicago visiting that day and we all took her out for lunch. A storm was not predicted. It was dry and cold when we left for lunch. When we came out, it was snowing and blowing. It came up so fast, we had a horrible walk back to the office. The wind was whipping and snow coming down fast. Of course, I didn’t have boots, and wasn’t dressed properly for any snowstorm. We got back to the office, and continued to work. We saw the snow coming down from our 4th floor windows. It’s the first time I ever remembered hearing thunder and seeing lightening at the same time it was snowing. By the time I left work, got to the car, the lot was chocked full of snow, my car got stuck, I wasn’t able to get out. I came back into the office and the person that was there from Chicago offered that I could stay with her in her hotel room. Since I wasn’t dressed to walk home and my husband couldn’t come to get me, I took her up on her offer. We got in one of the other staff’s cars to try to get to the hotel, and the car got stuck. We ended up walking to the hotel, we were all soaked wet by the time we got there. It was so bad. The hotel she was at was the Radisson, which was about a block and ½ west. The four men in the office lived quite a ways out of town, and ended up not being able to get home. They all joined us at the hotel, where we ate supper, and after spent the evening in the hotel lounge and looking out the windows at the blizzard that shut down the town. It was like the other day, no cars or people on the streets, and people staying over in the hotels because they couldn’t get home. The Radisson Hotel had a revolving restaurant at the top and watching the blizzard from up there was a beautiful sight. The Radisson was one of the newest buildings downtown. It provides a view of the harbor, the Aerial Lift Bridge and it was a great place to be watching a blizzard.
That was my first experience of a blizzard in Duluth. When looking at the list of bad storms in Duluth, it listed winters of 1995 – 96, and 1996-1997 as being the worst winters for snow storms in Duluth, in recent times. It named the November 9, 1913 storm, as the worst November storm ever on the Great Lakes. That blizzard had 62 mi. per hr. winds in Duluth and 3 ships were lost on Lake Superior.
The other bad blizzard that I know all of us most recently remember, of course, is the Oct. 31 – Nov. 3, 1991 Halloween Blizzard. We got over 37 inches of snow in Duluth. We had nasty wind chills, deep drifts, and many roads were closed for days. This was listed it as one of the largest and longest lasting blizzards in state history.
We really haven’t had a bad blizzard since the 1991 Halloween Blizzard, until this past week, but this past one we didn’t get the amount of snow or the nasty wind chills that the Halloween Blizzard gave us. That blizzard holds many records. Look at my post after this one, and I will write about that blizzard.
Labels: Stuck at the Radisson
posted by Linda at 8:56 AM
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