History Spotlight, 3/11

The Great Blizzard of 1888 strikes the east coast of the US on this day. New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, along with parts of Massachusetts received upwards of 5 feet of snow. Winds as high as 45 mph created drifts of over 50 feet high. Temperatures in Central Park dipped down to 6 degrees, a record for the time.
It all started as a typical late-winter day in New England: rainy and warm. As the front moved in and the temperatures dropped, it began to snow heavily on the evening of the eleventh. After midnight on the twelfth, the snow really began coming down and didn't stop for the next 48 hours.
Needless to say, the East Coast from Virginia to Maine was completely locked down. Major US cities were isolated for days, as all the telegraph lines were down and over 200 ships were either grounded or wrecked. It took almost eight days to clear the New York to Boston rail corridor. To make matters worse, when the snow started melting, then the flooding began. In all, it is estimated that 400 people died during the blizzard.