Travel Forum - Traveler Mania

The Great Snow of 1717
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Any era would have been hard by the severity of the snowfall experienced in New England, United States in February and March of 1717. But at a time when transportation consisted of horseback or by foot these harsh series of snowstorms were particularly devastating. Boston and Philadelphia got hit the hardest, but it is uncertain how widespread the effects were as record-keeping in colonial New England was rather sketchy. With snow drifts of 25 feet high, entire houses were buried rapping people in their homes for days. Those fortunate enough exited from second story windows.

The Storm of the Century
 
 
 
 
 
 Not only did this storm produce 60 inches of snow in some areas, it created torrential rains, winds and tornadoes. In early March 1993, a storm surged up on the east coast of the United States unleashing snow and wind on a wider area than any other storm in history.  The storm spread as far north as Canada to as far south as Central America. But the eye of the storm was focused on Cuba and the eastern states of the US where high winds were compared to that of a hurricane which ultimately created tornadoes. The storm claimed over 300 lives.

 

Chinese Winter Storms
 
 
 
 
 
 Chinas worst winter in 50 years occurred in January 2008 and  coincided with the Chinese New Year festival. Transportation networks  erupted into sheer chaos at a time where more than 178 million travelled  to celebrate the holidays with their family. Dozens of people died as desperate revellers ignored warnings not to travel. The snow storm caused extensive damage to a vast number of low-rise buildings, the roofs of which collapsed, killing occupants inside. It was estimated that about 223,000 homes were destroyed and 862,000 others were damaged. According to some media sources the storms were directly responsible for at least 129 deaths