Historic Hallowell

The blizzard of 1952 took place throughout the entire state of Maine, not just Hallowell. The storm started on Saturday, February sixteenth and by midnight on Sunday, there was a full foot of snow. Near the beginning of the storm, snow plows were able to clear the roads. Eventually neither cars nor the plows could even drive through it. Some areas of snow measured fifteen feet in depth. The wind made it very difficult to see and some drifts were up to eight feet high. Before this storm happened, it was predicted to be 18 inches, but it ended up being around 28 inches total. The death toll was sixty-three: two lobstermen, fifty-six other seamen, and five deaths on the Turnpike. Overall, this storm had many effects in Hallowell and all over the great state of Maine. Written by Emma Wilson

The blizzard of 1952 devastated Hallowell during the week that it raged. In the first few days the blizzard raged two lobstermen were killed. The kids were not aloud in school for weeks due to the blizzard and the roads were not clean enough for driving. People were stuck in their houses for weeks and ran out of food, water and were without power for days or weeks. Their houses, stores, and some of their relatives or friends died or were destroyed during the blizzard. Written by David Mallow

I have learned things about the Blizzard of 52’ that happened in Maine, and I thought it was a pretty bad storm, but comparing to other blizzards like the Chicago blizzard, were much worse, here is more about other blizzards. The Chicago blizzard of 1979 had 18.8 inches of snow (47.8 cm). The blizzard also had Mayor Daley die during the storm and Michael Bilandic took over. Mayor Daley died because of a heart attack at age 74. There is also another blizzard that the U.S. thinks it is one of the worst, The Great Blizzard of 1949, also known as The Great Death Blizzard. This blizzard lasted for seven weeks. It began in Wyoming and Colorado and then spread over most of the West. To save the cattle and sheep there, the U.S. Air Force dropped 1,500 tons of hay. More than 100 people and 1 million heads of livestock died it the The Great Death Blizzard. One blizzard I thought was really bad was the blizzard in 1956. The blizzard was held in Western Europe. It started on February 1st and ended on February 29th. In the storm, about 1 thousand people died. Written by Molly French