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IN
CHAOS
What it Means
N
ever in the memory ofmost Americans has there been a winter like this
past one.
For weeks on end. the Big Freeze of'77 clamped the industrial
heartland of America in an icy vise. Day after day of rccord-breaking
subfreezing temperatures sent the economies ofstate after state in the eastern
half of the nation careening into a tailspin. Millions of people were driven
out ofwork, their factories. offices and businesses closcd dueto severe fuel
shortages. Whole cities !ay Jjfeless. buried under suffocating rnountains of
snow. Sorne peoplc died trapped in their snowbound autornobiles. or frozen
to death in their own homes.
Snow also fell deep into the Southeastern states, in sorne places where it
had never before been seen. Virtually a whole season's crop ofvegetables
froze in the fields of southern Florida. Meanwhi le, in Alaska. people baskcd
in ternperatures in the 40s and 50s. And where the snow was rea lly needcd it
carne in insufficient arnounts or rnerely rested useless atop already frozen
bone-dry topsoil. Twelve states in a wide belt across the U.S.. mostly in the
West and Midwest. were operating under emergency relief conditions
because of severe drought. In California. municipal
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