The Great Storms of Long IsIand: The Blizzard of 1978

High noon, Feb. 6, 1978

The sun is nowhere in sight as a Nassau police officer with a flare tries to warn Meadowbrook Parkway drivers to steer clear of car wrecks caused by the blizzard that walloped Long Island on Feb. 6, 1978.

Two pedestrians brave wind and snow on Hempstead Turnpike in Hempstead on Feb. 6.

It's midafternoon on Hempstead Turnpike in Elmont, where a  woman tries to walk through the storm on Feb. 6.

Motorists abandon stalled cars on the Meadowbrook Parkway on Feb. 6.

A commuter tries hitchhiking to get home from the Mineola LIRR station during the snowstorm on Feb. 6.

Havoc on the roads

Drivers digging out their cars on Route 110 in Melville after they were buried in snow by the blizzard. 

A single lane of eastbound traffic crawls along the Long Island Expressway near Exit 51 in Commack on Feb. 6.

Nassau County Police Sgt. Timothy Duggen helps push out a car stuck on a snowbank on the Long Island Expressway, west of Exit 39, on Feb. 6.

Suffolk County Police Officer Jim McCarthy, on highway patrol along the Long Island Expressway near Hauppauge, gives a stalled motorist a battery boost with jumper cables during the storm on Feb. 6.

A payloader moves a car blocking its way on Middle Country Road in Lake Grove on Feb. 6.

Long Beach residents on one of the many unplowed side streets try to dig out on Feb. 7.

Next stop? It's nowhere for this bus at the Metropolitan Suburban Transit Authority's Oak Street depot in Garden Cty on Feb. 8,

A police car is buried by snow in Bayside, Queens, on Feb. 7.

Greg Murphy of Valley Stream trying to dig out his Volkswagen Beetle on Feb. 7.

A motorist tries to dig his car out of a snowdrift on Old Country Road in Westbury on Feb. 6.

Police put a motorist into an ambulance after he was injured in an accident on the Meadowbrook Parkway.

Life goes on

Jim Collura of Commack passes bottles of milk to customers at the Dairy Barn in New Cassel during the storm on Feb. 6.

Barry Bookhard, 13, dives into a snowdrift on Archer Street in Freeport on Feb. 6.

Gail Eisenberg, 12, of Rockaway Beach, dives off the boardwalk into the snow on the beach off the Shorefront Parkway on Feb. 8.

Green Bay? No, it's Baldwin Road in Baldwin, where a football game broke out on the snow-covered street.

A jogger on South Oyster Bay Road in Syosset runs past the snow-blocked entrance to the Northern State Parkway on Feb. 8.

One benefit of the blizzard: Conditions are great at the Town of Huntington ski area on Dix Hills Road in South Huntington on Feb. 8.

A bird's-eye view

An aerial photo taken Feb. 8 shows wrecked homes and beach erosion along the Fire Island shore.

Aerial view of a Massapequa street as people dig out their cars on Feb. 8.

Ocean waves lap the shore below homes on Dune Road in Westhampton Beach, where the sand was washed away by the storm on Feb. 7.

An aerial view of the homes on Dune Road in Westhampton Beach after sand was washed out from under them by the storm on Feb. 7.

A couple views a collapsed home in this aerial photo taken at Ocean Beach in Fire Island during the storm on Feb. 7.

Aerial view looking north shows cars on Route 106-107 opposite the Mid-Island Shopping Center in Hicksville on Feb. 8.

An aerial view of Kennedy Airport in Queens shows snow-covered runways and grounded planes on Feb. 7.

Rush-hour traffic jams Jericho Turnpike in Elwood in this aerial photo taken Feb. 8.

After the storm

Working in shifts, Brentwood neighbors shovel out the streets around Plum Street and Route 111.

A snowblower from Binghamton, which was sent down to Long Island by the state Department of Transportation to aid in the cleanup, plows the Northern State Parkway exit at South Oyster Bay Road in Plainview on Feb. 9.

The threat of heavy snow causing the roof to collapse keeps the doors closed at the Macy's department store and the other shops at the evacuated Walt Whitman Mall in Huntington. 

In Freeport, Long Island Rail Road signal inspectors Joe Spinelli of Oyster Bay and Rudolph Lento of Holbrook check the switch rail with a meter as the LIRR tries to get the trains running again on Feb. 8.

It's 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 9, three days after the blizzard hit, and traffic heading north is barely moving on South Oyster Bay Road in Syosset.