A Nassau police officer holds a flare on Meadowbrook Parkway...

A Nassau police officer holds a flare on Meadowbrook Parkway during a blizzard on Feb. 6, 1978 to warn motorists of auto accidents ahead. Credit: Newsday, 1978 / Stan Wolfson

As Long Island prepares for a blizzard threatening to dump more than 20 inches of snow in some spots, we're looking back to a similar storm in 1978 that left behind a reported 26 inches in Ronkonkoma and made the paper's cover exactly 35 years ago today.

A Newsday article on the 1978 storm reported "hundreds of motorists were rescued by snowmobile and four-wheel drive vehicles from impassable stretches of the Long Island Expressway and other majors roads...As of midnight, Suffolk police reported rescuing 850 motorists who were stuck on the LIE." 

And from the next day's paper, snow totals around the Island:

On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Newsday's Gregg Sarra and Matt Lindsay take a look top boys and girls basketball players on Long Island. Credit: Newsday

Sarra Sounds Off, Ep. 15: LI's top basketball players On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Newsday's Gregg Sarra and Matt Lindsay take a look top boys and girls basketball players on Long Island.

On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Newsday's Gregg Sarra and Matt Lindsay take a look top boys and girls basketball players on Long Island. Credit: Newsday

Sarra Sounds Off, Ep. 15: LI's top basketball players On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Newsday's Gregg Sarra and Matt Lindsay take a look top boys and girls basketball players on Long Island.

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