In A Class by Itself

OTHER STORMS PILED UP MORE SNOW, RECORDED higher winds, killed more people. But for combined extent and intensity, the Blizzard of '93, as it was called in most of the U.S., was in a class by itself. Tornadoes in Florida, record cold in Alabama (2 degreesF in Birmingham), mountainous snows from North Carolina (50 in. at Mount Mitchell) to New York (43 in. at Syracuse), hurricane-force winds (110 m.p.h. in Franklin County, Florida) -- all were part of the same monster storm system that from March 12 to March 15 spread death and destruction from Cuba, where three died, to the Canadian Maritimes (four killed). Deaths totaled 238, and that did not include 48 sailors missing from vessels that sank off Nova Scotia and in the Gulf of Mexico. Worst tolls: 50 in Pennsylvania, and 44 in Florida, where winds made deadly projectiles out of rubble still lying on the ground from Hurricane Andrew in August. Helicopters and search parties on snowshoes were still looking for hikers and campers stranded in Southern U.S. mountains; nine were airlifted out of Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains National Park as late as Thursday. Economic damages seemed sure to climb well past an early guess of $800 million; in New York State, Governor Mario Cuomo estimated snow-removal costs alone at $120 million. If it was not "the storm of the century," survivors hope they never see the real one.