Most Rhode Islander’s did stay alive through the blizzard and its aftermath, but 21 people perished throughout the state once the Nor’easter began at 10:10 a.m. on Monday, February 6, 1978.

A young child in Massachusetts disappeared in the snow just feet from his front door, and wasn’t found until a postman spotted a mitten poking out of the snow as it melted days later.  
Several people were found dead near the central police station in downtown Providence,  who may have died trying to seek shelter. This was no ordinary snowstorm.

The official snowfall, recorded at T.F. Green Airport’s National Weather Service measuring station, was 28.6 inches, which fell within the 36 hours that the storm lasted.  The first 27.6 inches fell within 24 hours, a record dating back to 1905.

The Providence Journal's forecast published the morning of the storm, read:  “Snow heavy at times tonight. Probable accumulations of 8 to 16 inches. Windy with drifting. Snow ending tomorrow . . . ”

“We were snowbound for three days,” said Elizabeth J. Cook-Martin, the Hopkinton town clerk, who was living in Hopkinton at the time.  “It was big snow.”

Cook-Martin had two children then, a five- and a one-year-old.  “They loved it,” she said.  “Our house was on top of a hill and we were able to go sledding.  It was amazing!  Quite a sight.”

The Great Blizzard gave birth to a tradition in Southern New England known as the "
runs." This was because people, for fear of being snowed in without staples, went to the supermarket, and all the bread and milk that the markets had were gone in a flash.

Running out to stock up on food was not a problem for Cook-Martin.  “When you grow up in the sticks, you tend to be more prepared than in other places,” she said.

Then President, Jimmy Carter declared Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts federal disaster areas.  Driving was banned, and the state was, for all practical purposes, closed for a week.  

“I remember a lot of snow,” said Steve Johnston, owner of Holmes Garage in Bradford.  Johnston was 18 at the time and living above DJ’s Dugout in Bradford. “The snow was two feet deep on Route 91.”

Unless you had some kind of snow vehicle, you weren’t going anywhere,” he said.  Johnston was caught in the storm in his mother’s Oldsmobile, which he had to abandon for more than a day in the middle of Route 91.  

“We drove snowmobiles to the truck stop for breakfast,” he said. “The piles of snow at Chariho were 20’ high! We had fun in it; got on top of the  mountains of snow and went sliding.  It was absolutely amazing!  I’ll never forget that in my life.”

Lorraine Tarket-Arruda, Hopkinton’s deputy town clerk, was in the car on Route 95, while her father navigated through the snow.  “My father was such a good driver,” she said.  “He was very relaxed.  He just said, ‘hang on.’  It took five hours to get from Electric Boat to home in Hopkinton, and we couldn’t get back to work for three days.”

Judy Roy, assistant in the Hopkinton tax assessor’s office remembers walking down Route 95 to the truck stop at exit 93 with a friend “just to see.”

There was no traffic,” she said.  “It took a lot longer than you think it would to get there.  It’s only a few seconds in the car.  I remember all the tractor trailer trucks parked on the side of the road.”

Becky Sheldon had been working at Green Plastics in Hope Valley.  She left work at about 3 p.m. the day of the storm.  “It was uneventful,” she said, “though it was tough going,” when she drove to Wood River to check on her parents.  “The plows hadn’t cleared all the roadsyet.”  

Once she got home, the wind kept creating drifts in front of the door.  “We had to keep shoveling so we’d be able to get out,” she said.
It seems that the blizzard’s impact on Hopkinton was less severe than in other parts of the state and throughout New England.

The only mention of the storm in the Hopkinton town council minutes is an entry in council record 21 on February 13, 1978, which reads:  “In view of the inclement weather, the meeting scheduled for February 6, 1978 was postponed to February 13, 1978.”

“Like the good old Yankees they were,” said Tarket-Arruda, “they just kept going on.”