The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

O’Gara and includes over one hundred stories of blizzard survivors. One of the books is David Laskin’s fine history entitled “The Children’s Blizzard.” The other is “In All its Fury,” the Great Blizzard of 1888.” edited by W. Certainly the greatest toll occurred among the Native American populations who lived on reservations in very inferior facilities.įor people who want to learn more about this horrendous blizzard, there are two strong historical works. No one knows how many people died in the blizzard, but often the people who lived bore a greater cross. The two states hit the hardest in the blizzard were South Dakota and Nebraska. Windchills, not calculated in 1888, would have been -70 to -90 below zero.

Winds rose from zero to 50-70 mph in seconds. Temps plummeted from 40 degrees to -30 degrees in hours. One moment you could see, the next moment you could not see your hand in front of your face. It cut a path across the United States as far as Texas, Alabama, and New York. The blizzard of 1888 has always captivated our imagination because it struck without warning on a warm day when most school children left their heavy winter wear home. Humbling to know that I am now much older than she was when she died in 1947. Like most boys nine years old, I thought she must be incredibly old. My dad said that she had had a terrible life as a result and people needed to go to the funeral to show their respect for a woman whose life was essentially destroyed when she was 10 years old. Two of her younger siblings died in the struggle.

My dad said that she had lost the leg in the Children’s Blizzard of 1888 it had become frozen when so many children struggled home from school during the terrible blizzard. All I remembered about her was that she was very old and limped about on a wooden leg. One day on the farm where I grew up, a couple of years after World War II ended, my dad told me in the morning that he was going to the funeral of a Miss Burtna later in the morning. “The Children’s Blizzard” by Melanie Benjamin, Delacorte Press,2020, 351 pages, $28.00.

The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin