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Blizzard of 1977 paralyzed Buffalo 40 years ago this week

Rochester and the Finger Lakes region gets its share of winter weather, but a blizzard 40 years ago this week - on January 28, 1977 - paralyzed Buffalo and its suburbs.

The Blizzard of '77 gripped the region for five days, was blamed for 29 deaths, closed schools for two weeks, and led President Jimmy Carter to declare a federal emergency.

Timothy Kneeland, professor and chair of the history and political science department at Nazareth College has released his new book The Buffalo Blizzard of 1977. 

Click in the LISTEN link above and hear Kneeland talk about how media coverage of the blizzard cemented Buffalo's reputation as America's Siberia, a cold and snow-covered outpost. But many Western New Yorkers who survived the blizzard remember it as a time when neighbors pulled together to help each other.