Winner in Feature Photography
Blizzard Rams New England
1979 Pulitzer Prize, Feature Photography, Staff Photographers of Boston Herald American
The lighthouse is 114 feet high, which means that foam is spraying 100 feet into the air,
propelled upward by a raging sea that sinks ships and floods towns up and down the coast.
It is Feb. 8, 1978. A blizzard has rammed New England, shutting down roads, businesses and
schools. Snow buries everything. Nothing moves. Kevin Cole, chief photographer at The Boston
Herald American, is stuck in Plymouth, Mass. "The snow was over the house. I've never seen
anything like it." Determined to cover the storm, Cole heads for the Hyannis airport. "I found this
place called Discover Flying School. The wind was blowing. The pilot said 'You're crazy,
nobody's going up.'"
Before long, they are airborne. "It was this little, tiny plane. We took off. The whole coastline was
gone, houses in the water, houses floating, waves crashing inside them. About two miles out, I
saw Minot Light."
In the raging wind, they circle the lighthouse. The pilot tells Cole, "We can't stay out here any
longer.' Just as he started to turn, I saw a huge wave. That's when I got that shot, and that's the
same time I threw up."
Other Herald American photographers fan out around the region, photographing the blizzard's
destruction: Villages buried in freezing flood waters, commuters trapped in snow-covered cars.
The newspaper publishes a special section, which chronicles the worst New England storm in
200 years—54 dead, 10,000 homeless and evacuated.