Heavy Snowfall Blankets Boston Area; Traffic Snarled, Class Attendance Cut

The worst autumn blizzard on record swept up the Eastern seaboard yesterday and clogged Boston with over a foot of snow.

The storm blanketed cities from Washington, D.C. to Bangor, Maine. Hardest hit was New York, where the accumulation reached 20 inches.

Of the local schools, colleges, and universities, only Harvard remained open. With traffic slowed to a crawl, Boston authorities sent out their full task force of more than 150 snowplows. The MTA cancelled all surface feeder lines, maintaining only the subway operations.

At Harvard, subfreezing temperatures and waist-deep drifts cut early-morning lecture and section attendance to half of the normal. Students who did brave the 40 mph gusts often had to wait up to half an hour for section men coming on public transportation vehicles.

The only event held as scheduled yesterday evening was the HDC production of "The Caucasian Chalk Circle." Quincy House's Africa forum fell through when the plane carrying speaker Abdoulaye Sengare was grounded in Chicago. The night school did not hold classes.

Christmas came 13 days early for anyone in Cambridge selling cold-weather clothing. With barely a fifth of the staff on the job, the Coop disposed of about 400 pairs of galoshes before running out. Shivering customers also bought up the entire stock of gloves, earmuffs, and caps. At Brine's sporting goods store, students purchased over $600 worth of Head skis before 3 p.m.

Traffic conditions localy mirrored those all over the city. The slight grade of Boylston St. proved too much for two huge semi-trailers and an MTA bus. The three blocked up traffic for nearly an hour. After sliding to a halt in front of one of the area's gas stations, two ladies attacked with their shoes a service station attendant who told them to move because they were blocking the entrance.

At Logan Airport, where all take-offs and landings have been halted "indefinitely," the weather bureau reported foot-deep snow falls as far south as Philadelphia and Baltimore. The storm cans.

By 7 p.m. yesterday evening, the total death toll from the blizzard taken from late last week when the disturbance began, climbed above 65. Weather-induced heart attacks, fires, disasters at sea and automobile accidents accounted for most of the fatalities.

The Maine Turnpike was completely impassible, and traffic was moving at only 30 mph on the Mass. Pike. Describing the situation in Maine, an official sending out rescue vehicles said. "We don't care about the cars, we just want to get the people out of them and get them where it's warm."