The drive for bare pavement shaped winter roads public policy

By Hannah Brock

Author Timothy Kneeland was 14 years old when snow piled 20 to 30 feet high over four days in his small town outside of Buffalo, New York. The Great Lakes’ snow belt brought havoc to the Buffalo area on Jan. 28, 1977. The storm was the first to be declared a federal emergency disaster declaration for snow. More than 40 years later, Kneeland documented the experience and how it impacted public policy with his book “Declaring Disaster: Buffalo’s Blizzard of ‘77 and the Creation of FEMA” (Syracuse University Press, $24.95).

Lighthouse? Ice house!

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Ohio’s Cuyahoga River once was noted for catching fire. But check out another temperature extreme in this clip from the Today Show featuring a Lake Erie lighthouse at the river’s mouth near Cleveland.  The river is a heck of a lot cleaner now – it doesn’t burn. But I’m not sure any amount of flames could melt that ice coat this week.