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'Once-in-a-lifetime' blizzard kills at least 27 in western New York

Published 12/26/2022, 05:10 AM
Updated 12/27/2022, 03:52 AM
© Reuters. Vehicles are left stranded on the road following a winter storm that hit the Buffalo region in Amherst, New York, U.S., December 25, 2022.  REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

© Reuters. Vehicles are left stranded on the road following a winter storm that hit the Buffalo region in Amherst, New York, U.S., December 25, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

By Brendan McDermid and Gabriella Borter

BUFFALO, N.Y. (Reuters) -A blizzard that paralyzed western New York over the Christmas weekend has killed more than two dozen people, local officials said on Monday, as crews struggled to dig out the snow-bound region around Buffalo from its fiercest winter storm in decades.

With snow continuing to fall on top of more than 4 feet (1.2 meters) dumped on Buffalo since the blizzard took shape on Friday, New York's second-largest city stood as ground zero for a storm the governor called an "epic, once-in-a-lifetime" weather disaster.

The toll of confirmed storm-related deaths climbed to 27 in Buffalo and the rest of Erie County on Monday, from 13 the night before. The fatalities included cases of people found in snow banks and in cars or who had died from cardiac stress while plowing or blowing snow, county executive Mark Poloncarz said.

The county issued a "Shovel Smart" alert warning that the over-exertion from "shoveling heavy, wet snow can cause back injuries and heart attacks."

At least 60 lives have been lost in weather-related incidents nationwide, according to an NBC News tally, from an arctic deep freeze and sprawling storm front that extended over most of the United States for days, as far south as the Mexican border.

The larger storm system has wreaked havoc with travel across the country over the holiday weekend, stranding passengers as thousands of flights were canceled.

The greater Buffalo region, on the edge of Lake Erie near the Canadian border, was hardest hit.

Nearly 50 inches (1.27 meters) of snow was measured at Buffalo Airport as of Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

Although blinding winds that created white-out conditions for more than two days had abated by Monday, snow kept coming down, with accumulations of up to a foot (30 cm) more forecast through Tuesday in areas south of Buffalo and north of Syracuse.

RESCUE EFFORTS PERSIST

Roadways remained littered with cars, buses, ambulances, tow trucks and even plows buried beneath towering drifts, complicating efforts to clear snow-blanketed streets and reach stranded residents in need of medical care. Authorities deployed high-lift tractors as hospital transports.

Despite a ban on personal road travel that remained in effect on Monday, hundreds of motorists had to be rescued from their vehicles over the weekend

A few of the grocery stores that had been closed for days reopened on Monday, and people trekked more than a mile (1.6 km) through the middle of otherwise impassable streets to get there.

The severity of the storm, notable for a region accustomed to harsh winter weather, grew out of a combination of meteorological factors that supercharged one another.

Howling winds, numbing cold and "lake-effect" snow - the result of moisture picked up by frigid air moving over warmer lake waters - produced a storm that New York Governor Kathy Hochul said would go down in history as "the Blizzard of '22."

She and local officials ranked it as the worst Buffalo-area snowstorm since a 1977 blizzard that killed nearly 30 people.

U.S. President Joe Biden issued a federal emergency declaration for the state of New York on Monday night, authorizing U.S. government assistance to bolster state and local recovery efforts, the White House announced.

"My heart is with those who lost loved ones this holiday weekend. You are in my and Jill's prayers," Biden said in a Twitter message earlier in the day.

Hundreds of National Guard troops were assisting local emergency personnel and state police on Monday as crews rescued people still trapped in cars and homes without electricity, performed wellness checks and delivered food and basic needs.

Poloncarz said many emergency workers had themselves become trapped in the snowy onslaught over the weekend, requiring special teams to be dispatched "to rescue the rescuers."

Thousands of people in Erie County had power restored as of Monday morning, Poloncarz said, though some 14,000 customers were still without power statewide, according to poweroutage.us.

© Reuters. An ambulance passes an abandon car during a winter storm that hit the Buffalo region, in Amherst, New York, U.S., December 26, 2022.  REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Poloncarz pleaded for motorists to heed the driving ban in order to keep free of traffic those narrow street routes that had been cleared for emergency and utility workers trying to weave through an obstacle course of buried cars and snow banks.

"There are cars everywhere, everywhere, pointing the wrong direction on roads. They've basically been plowed in and they need to be dug out and towed. It's going to take time to clear those," Poloncarz said.

Latest comments

27 people didn’t survive from getting their tax bill
covid viruses probably are all disappeared in the cold. no more covid will be strong possibility. massive yearend and January effect mkt rallies are surely on.
new babau covid will strike again but need to wait 3 weeks lol
global warming is not what it used to be
This is not new to this region. Buffalo area gets huge snow storms every year.
"Trust the government. They'll save you." lol
will it have a 10% gap up ?
what will be the effect on NG price??
The price will go higher anyway.
Looting of the stores in Buffaloe. Why no reports of the looking and gunfire deaths??? Why Who was looting on Christmas Day?? Who? This is not reporting. This is state sponsored censorship. Buffaloe gets storms like this every few years. Global warming it is not . Look at the historical snowfall records for Buffaloe. 4 foot 5 foot 6 foot storms are quite ordinary over 100’years
On November 28, 2022, top forecaster Joe Bastardi warned that there was a “spectacular" cold wave coming based on his historical research.
Biden and team planning to blame this on Vladimir Putin and China
A good illustration why “global warming” label has been quietly substituted with “climate change”. However, the same fools are still in charge.
Not fools so much as people finding what they're paid to find.
 Yes, “fools” was not a complete definition. Quite possible, a more complete one would be blocked by this site censorship.
- wasn’t aware one needed a PhD in Meteorology (or related) to read history…since you’re writing an opinion, do you have a degree in English?
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