The Blizzard of the 20th Century, as the story in the Jan. 10, 2001 Skaneateles Press labeled it, Skaneateles Emerges From Record Snowfall as the Feb. 3, 1966 Skaneateles Press headlined.
I worked part time at the Dell Funeral Home, now where The Thayer House Condos are located, at 77 E. Genesee St. in the Village of Skaneateles. It was Sunday afternoon, Jan. 30, 1966 and the snow had begun.
The high temperature was 10 and the snow was blowing and drifting badly. The funeral home had a funeral service scheduled for Earl Milford. In spite of the deep snow, the funeral service was held.
Dell stored the hearse in the garage behind the Sunoco gas station at 77 W. Genesee St. and Kane Avenue, now the location of the fire department.
I had to walk through knee deep snow to get into the garage and then blast back out of the garage with the big black 1965 Caddy hearse onto Kane Avenue. The funeral service was held at the funeral home. We then took the deceased to Lakeview Cemetery where it was held in storage until the cemetery crews could prepare the grave in the spring.
I was on the night shift at my full time job, as a firefighter, in Syracuse.
Being a Sunday, luckily there was no one on the roads. So I was able to make it to my fire station on the west side of the city without any problems.
I drove on unplowed roads keeping a steady speed all the way, slowing down slightly for stop signs. My 1965 Pontiac was a heavy car and broke its own trail through the snow.
Monday, a city-county snow emergency was declared. All off-duty city firefighters were to report to the nearest fire station. It snowed all day and night.
To accommodate walk-in fire fighters, beds in the fire station’s second floor dormitory were split placing the mattress on the floor and the box spring remained in the frame.
Tuesday, Feb. 1 the snow let up. All streets in our response district were impassable. No response was possible with the fire engine. One arriving firefighter brought with him a toboggan. So, we loaded hose, and tools on the toboggan to be used for responding to calls. Fortunately we did not have any.
The fire department’s supply truck, a large all wheel drive vehicle, was able to get food supplies to us later that afternoon. We had a large dinner that night with all members of my station and two fire fighters from other stations that could only make it to their engine house.
At 10 p.m. a huge pusher type plow opened up the main streets in our area. This plow was big – the driver sat in a high cab and was able to look straight into the second floor of the fire house. In all, 60 inches of snow hit our area in that storm. Oswego reported 101 inches. I made a few trips out to my Pontiac convertible car parked behind the fire house to clear the snow accumulations from the fabric roof.
At that time the City of Syracuse did not have the snow fighting equipment to handle such a storm. They used salt spreader trucks with belly plows. This was a blade that was positioned between the front and rear axles hanging from the truck’s frame.
My fire house was a few blocks from the Village of Solvay’s boundary. They had big plows. We looked down snow choked Chemung Street and could see traffic moving on the Solvay streets. Plows from other municipalities assisted Syracuse digging out. The city learned a lesson and now buys front mounted big snow plows.
My shift was sent home at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2. Skaneateles was pretty well dug out. Mail was finally available, but only at the post office.
Snow banks and drifts were 20 feet high in places. Cars attached red flags on radio antennas so one could see another car approaching at intersections. Snowmobiles were active checking on people with medical conditions and getting food and supplies to others. Skaneateles schools were closed until Monday, Feb. 7. Talk about “snow days.”
I reported back to my Syracuse fire station Friday, Feb. 4 and stayed until Sunday night. The fire department ran two twelve hour shifts.
The main focus was digging out all the fire hydrants. I clocked 65 hours of overtime. Unfortunately, we were paid back in comp time not money.
One last comment – during the height of the blizzard, the Syracuse Fire Department had very few calls. Once the streets opened up the call volume quickly increased back to usual levels.
Submitted by :
By Jorge Batlle
Skaneateles Village Historian
