I have lived through two awful storms. The first was in 2000 where we got around 9 feet of snow in 24 hours. The second was the "October Surprise" in 2006 where we got about 5 feet of snow in 12 hours. The October storm was the worst because the leave were still on the trees and the show was heavy, so all the trees in the area came down and destroyed houses, roads, and power lines.
The positive to those two freak storms happening is that now when we get a foot of snow, it isn't a big deal anymore.