PORTLAND, Maine — The northeaster that hit on Feb. 17-18 in 1952 caused the deaths of three dozen people in New England, six of them in Maine. It all but paralyzed much of the state, forcing hundreds of drivers to abandon their cars on the Maine Turnpike and take shelter in a Howard Johnson’s restaurant. Off Cape Cod, mountainous waves and punishing winds cracked in half not one but two tankers.
Although 30 inches of snow fell and drifts piled up as high as 12 feet, “it was far from the most dramatic storm in New England’s history,” writes Cathie Pelletier, the author of “Northeaster: A Story of Courage and Survival in the Blizzard of 1952.” What Pelletier wanted to bring to her account of the storm and its impact was the "drama that happens to ordinary people, to ordinary families, to ordinary towns—stories often not press-worthy…the commonplace of everyday lives when disrupted.”
Writing the book forced Pelletier, who lives in Allagash, to do an enormous amount of research, much of which entailed reaching out to the children of the adults whose stories she tells. (Someone who was 25 years old when the storm hit would, if still alive, now be 96.)
“I sent one woman over a thousand questions about her mother in two years,” she said. “Emailed her. We haven’t met in person.”
“Northeaster” is a serious book about a dramatic event, but it's not without moments of lightness. Pelletier savored the amusing anecdotes she came across in her research.
“A mannequin blew out of a department store window on the streets of Portland,” she said. “The wind broke the window and blew this mannequin out on the sidewalk. Passersby thought it was a real body and began panicking.”
A final word about the title: “Northeaster,” not “Nor’easter.” Pelletier’s convictions run strong on this point. “Mainers,” she states firmly, “do not talk like the actors in ‘Murder, She Wrote.’”