By Laura Hand
Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 5:57 p.m.
The wild weather year, actually, began two days before the New Year of 1998, when a big snowstorm forced the city of Syracuse into a snow emergency. The snowfall was so heavy that the Carrier Dome collapsed.
Not long after, on January 8, Watertown saw a huge ice storm, with nearly 80,000 left without power and heat. Niagara Mohawk caravanned dozens of utility trucks into the community to help restore electricity and cut the ice-laden tree branches that brought lines down.
On May 31st a violent windstorm devastated the Binghamton area, but also brought down branches and wires in Marcellus, and caused a state of emergency there.
And, 1998 also saw the Labor Day Storm, which shut down the State Fairgrounds, where two were killed. St Lucy's toppled steeple, in Syracuse, became a symbol of the damage from straight-line winds and downed trees.
