Why was the Great Blizzard of 1888 so severe?

I am doing a research project on the Great Blizzard of 1888, and I cannot find the answer to my question.|||"The storm hit the East Coast of the United States on a Sunday and - this is the critical factor - stalled. As it lingered it dumped 50 inches (127 centimeters) of snow on Connecticut and central Massachusetts. Howling winds piled up drifts as high has 50 feet (15 meters), burying houses and trains."


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/鈥?/a>





It was also an El Nino year, as this winter was also.


There's a book- El Nino. The Weather Phenomenon That Changed The World. R. Couper Johnston that includes the 1888 great snow storm.|||Lack of infrastructure required to deal with it.