by Madison Benoit ‘29 on March 19, 2026
News
It’s official that the record is broken! The Blizzard of 1978 has long held the title as the biggest snowstorm seen in New England. I’m sure many readers have heard stories of this storm from those who lived through it. Now you have stories of your own. This winter’s blizzard dumped a shocking 37.9 inches of snow onto Providence, RI. The Blizzard of 1978 only dropped 28.6 inches of snow. This means the record was not just broken, it was completely destroyed. Although we enjoyed three snow days on campus, many RI residents struggled to dig themselves out.
For days, many streets remained completely unplowed with many residents resorting to shoveling themselves out. Many reports indicated that the state’s equipment was not up to the challenge. Tiverton Department of Public Works Director David Michael Silvia, Jr. spoke with 12 News and said, “When we started to plow the roads, all of our vehicles started to get stuck on all the hills in Tiverton.. So, we spent the majority of Monday while the storm was at its peak trying to pull out either DPW vehicles or emergency vehicles.” This was seen not only in Tiverton, RI but all over the state.
Due to the excessive amounts of snow, Rhode Island was forced to seek help from other states including Vermont, Maine, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, resulting in an estimated $1.4 million in out-of state costs for equipment and 109 workers. The question still stands: why was Rhode Island not prepared? Many streets did not see plows for days. According to the City of Providence, there were 63 plow vehicles and 80 DPW employees deployed during the storm, along with over 5,000 tons of salt and sand. “We are fully prepared to meet the challenges of this weekend’s snowstorm,” said Department of Public Works Director Patricia Coyne-Fague. This statement proved to be shaky as we later saw. This comes at an important time with the upcoming mayoral election, as this storm may very well affect the outcome for current Providence Mayor Brett Smiley.