Short answers, pulled from the story.
The United States National Weather Service defines a blizzard as a severe snowstorm with sustained winds or frequent gusts of at least 56 kilometers per hour, visibility reduced to 400 meters or less by blowing or drifting snow, lasting for at least three hours. The key distinction from an ordinary snowstorm is the strength of the wind, not the amount of snow.
The 1972 Iran blizzard is the deadliest blizzard in recorded history, killing a reported 4,000 people. It dropped as much as 26 feet of snow and completely buried 200 villages across an area roughly the size of Wisconsin.
The Great Plains Blizzard of January 9-11, 1887, a 72-hour storm with temperatures around -50 degrees Fahrenheit, killed an estimated 90 percent of the open range's cattle through cold and subsequent starvation. Carcasses clogged rivers and spoiled drinking water, forcing many ranchers into bankruptcy and effectively ending the era of the great Plains cattle drives.
The Oxford English Dictionary concludes that "blizzard" is likely onomatopoeic, derived from the same sense as blow, blast, blister, and bluster. The first recorded use for weather dates to 1829, when it meant a "violent blow." The word achieved its modern meteorological definition by 1859 in the western United States and entered common press usage during the harsh winter of 1880-81.
A ground blizzard produces no new precipitation. Instead, loose snow or ice already on the ground is lifted and driven by strong winds until visibility collapses to blizzard levels. A regular blizzard involves active snowfall combined with high winds; a ground blizzard achieves the same dangerous conditions using only previously fallen snow.
The Storm of the Century formed over the Gulf of Mexico on the 12th of March 1993 and dissipated in the North Atlantic on the 15th. It knocked out electric power to over 10 million customers, killed 310 people including 10 from Cuba, and caused between 6 and 10 billion dollars in damage. At its height the storm stretched from Canada toward Central America, and it is estimated to have been directly experienced by nearly 40 percent of the country's population at that time.