MORE: Pennsylvania’s problems began even before the Blizzard of ’77.

An arctic blast of cold preceded the storm, which wreaked havoc on the natural gas supply for this part of the nation.

On Jan. 27, 1977, Gov. Milton Shapp ordered that all public and private schools be closed due to a dwindling natural gas supply, hoping to prevent possible cutoffs to residential customers.

The only school that was an exception to the closings was University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

“The decision is to be reviewed Monday, but schools in 29 counties served by Columbia Gas could be closed longer,” read The Era at the time.

All thermostats in the shuttered school were also to be turned to 50 degrees, and gas in schools was cut by 60 percent. Commercial customers were also cut from 40 to 60 percent.

The article continued, “The order means Columbia (Gas) doesn’t have to go through with plans to shut off gas completely to 370 industrial customers beginning Feb. 1. They will now be given about 10 percent of their usual gas needs, enough for plant maintenance.”

The shutoff was a threat to 50,000 workers, and an estimated 51,000 people were laid off across the state because of the cold.

The Department of Labor and Industry stated that a total of 18,020 workers had applied for unemployment, an indication of the problem at hand.

Officials worried that no end was in sight because temperatures were expected to drop to near zero over the weekend.

If the demand for gas became too high, the pressure would drop, resulting in all of the lines being cut off.

It would then take four or five days for utility workers to go house-to-house and reset gas equipment for residents.

Shipments of fuel oil and grain were blocked due to heavy ice clogging the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

“Some of those barges on the Ohio are loaded with heating oil destined for homes in southwestern Pennsylvania, and officials there termed the situation serious,” reported the Associated Press.

We’ll share some more tomorrow.