Part 1
Last week my friend, Chris, was digging in her attic and came across a treasure at the bottom of a box. She immediately phoned me, knowing that I would really consider it a treasure. She excitedly told me about the discovery of these 30-year-old newspapers … the beloved issues of the Delphos Herald “Blizzard of ‘78” edition.
Yes, folks! It’s been 30 years. Many of you remember those days in January 1978 and for many it was not a good experience.
It’s a good thing Chris found this printed treasure because all my blizzard papers are still buried in a box in my archives upstairs. It’s much easier to look at and read the actual paper than to sit at the library microfilm, although I still might have to search those microfilms for more information and stories.
The Delphos Herald had to combine three editions into one — Thursday, Jan. 26; Friday, Jan. 27; and Saturday, Jan. 28. Then the Monday, Jan. 30 paper covered the previous four days again. The coverage was excellent and loaded with photos and data.
Just what all brought on this Blizzard of ‘78 … just one year after the Blizzard of ‘77, which also brought activity to a standstill and stranded numerous travelers? According to Schmidlin & Schmidlin’s Thunder in the Heartland, three strong weather systems collided over Ohio on that eventful January morning.
On Wednesday evening, the 25th of January, it was rather quiet. Rain and fog was widespread in Ohio with some freezing rain. Temperatures were in the 30s and 40s, but a combination of weather systems were headed for Ohio. A strong winter storm was moving northward from the Gulf of Mexico through Tennessee and Kentucky — bitterly cold air was moving eastward through Iowa and Illinois and tropical air was flowing north along the Atlantic Coast. Some said a system was coming down from the north, too. Computer models of the National Weather Service forecast a winter storm over Ohio on Thursday. They hit it right on the nose. The storm entered Ohio near Portsmouth at midnight and exited over Lake Erie around 4 a.m.
We knew there was a storm moving in but had no idea of its severity. Earl Finkle, weather forecaster for Fort Wayne radio station WOWO, warned “this is not a guess, this snow storm is really going to happen.”
My dear late husband, Hubert “Hups” Kaverman had a passion for listening and watching the area weather forecast. He was a faithful follower of Finkle so he brought a large front-end loader home from the Delphos Quarries on Wednesday evening and parked it on our patio. He also kept track of his own barometer readings. When it dropped to 29.00 he knew we were in trouble.
Ray Burkholder, Putnam County weather observer, from Pandora, said in any time in winter when the barometric pressure is 29.40 inches or lower high winds occur. Burkholder said the barometer continued to fall and at 3 a.m. on Thursday morning the reading was 28.56. The Wednesday night rain had turned to snow and visibility was zero. During the blizzard, the lowest barometer reading in Delphos and the Tri-County area was 28.88.
According to Finkle, the barometer pressure was at hurricane force. The snow and winds were so strong on Thursday that nearly everything in the area came to a standstill. Snow removal crews had to be pulled off the roads. Gov. James Rhodes said the storm was “the worst blizzard in the history of Ohio” and declared a state of emergency which enabled him to activate the Ohio National Guard throughout the state.
The winds were 50 mph and the temperature was near zero. When people and machines could finally start moving, the City of Delphos was assisted by private contractors, including Ulm’s Inc., in heavy snow removal. The severe weather was hard on heavy equipment, also. According to the Delphos Herald, “The garage at the new Delphos Municipal Building on North Canal Street was put to use thawing out state, Washington Township, Suever Stone Quarry, as well as city equipment, during snow clearing efforts.”
The Delphos Quarries assisted Marion Township in snow removal and used huge front-end loaders to dig and push snow off the roads ahead of the Ohio Power crews. Delphos Quarries had three huge loaders out on the roads.
Richard “Popeye” Warnecke said he started one loader in operation at 7 a.m. in Delphos and it took him all day to get to Landeck. After a bite to eat, he was back on the road with the loader and it took him until midnight to get to Spencerville. He kept going till 8 o’clock the next morning. He said there were 12-foot drifts near the Landeck church and cemetery. He said the drifts he encountered were 15-18 feet deep near Gordon Moenter’s place. Warnecke had high praise for the Ohio Power crews, especially those climbing the poles to restore the electricity in the area.
Gomer, Landeck, Venedocia and the rural areas were hardest hit by the blizzard because of the power outage. The Putnam County Sheriff reported that 30 to 50 percent of the county was without electricity. Power was restored to Gomer on Sunday morning, following a three-day outage. Power was restored to 2,000 customers of Delphos on Saturday morning.
However, it was 12:30 p.m. on Sunday until Landeck had electric power restored. Rita Wannemacher, Kill Road, Landeck, said she, along with her husband and two children, put a mattress in the bathroom. They huddled in that one room, using candles for heat. Rita said it broke her heart when she had to resort to using the boys First Communion candles for heat.
Many people in Landeck were able to group in homes where there were fireplaces or wood-burning furnaces. Mrs. Jim Illig remembers having 42 people staying at their home on and off. It was reported that the homes of Joe Miller, Jerome Etzkorn and Rudy Hoersten took in 20 to 30 people each. A shelter was set up in the Delphos St. John’s Little Theater on Thursday. The shelter assisted over 204 persons. Some were processed and sent on to stay with relatives who had electricity.
Many truckers who were stranded on the  highways since Thursday were still at the shelter on Monday. All food for lunches was provided by the American Red Cross, with Jo Belt as coordinator.
According to figures kept by the Red Cross, approximately 130 meals were served on Thursday, 220 on Friday, 23 on Saturday and 118 by Sunday. Many young men with snowmobiles proved to be angels of mercy during the blizzard, transporting people, food and medical supplies.
(To be continued next week. Public television, WBGU-TV will be airing their documentary “The Blizzard of ‘78” on Jan. 26, the anniversary of THAT day.)