20 years later: 1993 storm largest in living memory

Highway 280 looking west toward Alexander City at the top of the river bridge. Contributed Photo/Jeffrey Scroggins

Twenty years ago the largest winter storm in living memory rolled through Alabama, bringing high winds, sleet, snow and freezing temperatures that literally paralyzed most of the state for anywhere from three to eight days.

Created by the meeting of a cyclonic storm that roared out of the Gulf of Mexico and an arctic high pressure system that swept across the Midwest and Great Plains, the Great Blizzard of 1993 claimed the lives of 310 people from Cuba through the Northeast. It also downed thousands of power lines, causing the loss of electricity for more than 10 million customers in 26 states and Canada.