The weight of the snow snapped telegraph and telephone wires in New York City, hindering communications

As the east coast of the US prepares for a significant snowstorm–Snowmaggedon, Snowpocalypse, etc.–here’s an article about the grandfather of all US blizzards, the Great Blizzard of 1888.  The article focuses on the storm’s effect on New York City, which was horrendous in today’s terms, but the storm also affected the entire northeast of the US.  Remember this was in the days of no weather forecasts–so the storm arrived without notice–and no snow plows–so its effects lingered for weeks after the storm cleared.

Coincidentally, two months before this blizzard, there was another Blizzard of 1888 that affected the center portion of the US.  This storm is also sometimes called the Schoolhouse Blizzard or the Children’s Blizzard because it came on so quickly and unexpectedly that many children were trapped in their schoolhouses until they could be eventually rescued.