<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (February 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (February 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Boston and Providence recorded all - time highs for 24 - hour and storm snowfall . Many people were left without heat, water, food, and electricity for over a week after the storm finished . Approximately 10,000 people moved into emergency shelters . Some 2,500 houses were reported as seriously damaged or destroyed and 54 people were killed, many because of fallen electrical wires . Several people were found dead in downtown Providence, near the central police station; they may have been seeking shelter . Ten - year - old Peter Gosselin, of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, disappeared in the deep snow just feet from his home's front door and was not found until three weeks later . Most of the Interstate highway system in the region was shut down, with some stretches not reopening to traffic until the following week . Air and rail traffic also were shut down . </P> <P> The snow fell too quickly for plow trucks to keep up . Plows were further hampered by the number of cars stuck on the roads . In Boston, the deep snow overwhelmed the city's sanitation department, because there was no more room along streets and sidewalks to put the snow; much of it was hauled and dumped in nearby harbors . Throughout the region, the high winds caused enormous drifts . </P>

How much snow did new york get in the blizzard of 1978