ARCHBOLD, OH (WTOL) - It was called the White Hurricane. A historic blizzard that dropped nearly three feet of snow across the Great Lakes region.
While the storm shut down the Toledo metropolitan area, how did folks smaller rural towns manage?
Lugbill supply center was the place to get all of your agricultural needs in Archbold back in 1978. Karlin Wyse remembers the rush of people preparing in the area before the snow began to fall.
"The news media was on it pretty good, and we sent anybody that lived more than two hours away home at 4 o'clock in the afternoon before the big thing came in," said Wyse.
Wyse said after the snow fell, the entire village shut down, as cars were completely buried and roadways were indistinguishable from farm fields.
"Oh it was unbelievable, the whole town was shut down," explained Wyse. "There was nothing moving in town, the country was all shut down. There was no vehicles moving any place in the country."
Wyse said less than two days after the record breaking snowfall, the roads in Archbold hadn't even begun to be cleared when he received a call that he had to make his way into town and help a customer.
A farmer's cattle waterer had frozen and broke, and without a vehicle, Wyse was forced to go into work on foot.
"We walked in, it took 30 minutes or so to walk in and then took care of the parts," said Wyse. "And then he came in on his tractor, his four wheel drive tractor. And then we walked back home."
Lugbill Supply Center reopened the following Monday as county crews finally began to open up the roads.
Wyse said the entire community of Archbold came together during those five days to help each other get through the worst snow storm in Ohio history.
"It's just like some of the hurricanes that came across this year." said Wyse "People pull together and help each other out. And that's what happened here during the blizzard of '78."
