Someone else mentioned that there were actually TWO big snowstorms within a few weeks of each other that winter.
I think the reference to the "Perfect Storm" of 1991 is incorrect, though. I believe the author was referring to the December 1992 "Nor'easter" storm in which a series of coinciding events combined to raise rivers in the eastern U.S. to flood levels they hadn't seen in at least 100 years. The storm surge was unusually high because it occurred during a full moon, and it was on top of an unusually high full-moon tide because there was also a lunar eclipse at the same time -- tides are highest during an eclipse when the sun and moon are exactly 180 degrees apart in the sky.
There were about 35 deaths in the one that hit the midwestern states in Jan. '78. This page has links to both, and even the storm that consequently hit Great Britain. Blizzard of '78 links