Buffalo faces brunt of deadly winter storm

The enormous winter storm that killed about 50 people across the U.S. the past few days has proven especially brutal for residents in and around the city of Buffalo, N.Y.

Buffalo, which sits on the northeastern tip of Lake Erie, was blanketed by more than 40 inches of snow over the weekend. Temperatures plunged when sweeping, arctic air coincided with a low-pressure storm that brought hurricane-force winds.

The area has seen people trapped in cars or stuck in below-freezing homes, local officials said. The storm-related death toll in the city now stands at 20, according to the mayor, with more than a dozen of those individuals found outside in the cold.

“This has been a very difficult and dangerous storm,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said at a Monday news conference, noting it was a once-in-a-generation event.

“Everything that was forecast we have gotten in the city of Buffalo, and then some.”

Thousands of residents in the Buffalo area lost power as the storm moved in over the weekend from the central United States. As of Monday afternoon, officials said the number of homes without power had dropped below 10,000.

Brown said some residents have been without power since Friday.

The National Guard has deployed to help clear up roads and assist dozens of emergency personnel responding to residents trapped inside their vehicles or stuck out in the blistering cold.

Ahead of the storm last week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) declared a state of emergency for the entire state and on Monday expressed surprise that the storm had mostly devastated western New York.

She called the winter storm the “blizzard of the century” and said officials were expecting another 6 to 12 inches of snow.

“It’s still a dangerous situation,” she said, describing “scores and scores” of vehicles left outside in the heavy snow. “We have had snowplows, major snowplows, and rescue vehicles — I saw them myself in ditches, buried in snow. Those circumstances are still difficult.”

Hochul added she recently talked to President Biden, who has promised to swiftly approve her request for federal emergency aid.

Local counties in western New York are enforcing a driving ban to keep residents out of the storm.

Many streets in Buffalo are also impassible for both walkers and drivers because of the thick snow.

Brown, Buffalo’s mayor, explained that some people have “taken advantage of the suffering in our community” to loot buildings and stores.

Western New York alone accounts for more than half of the death toll so far in the U.S.

In Erie County, which includes Buffalo, 27 deaths were confirmed from the local medical examiner’s office, although official causes of death could change the unofficial toll attributed to the winter storm.

In frequent updates, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz has described some of the deaths related to the storm, with 14 people found outside, three from an EMS delay and three who died from cardiac arrest after shoveling snow.

In neighboring Niagara County, one man died of carbon monoxide poisoning in his car.

“We do expect that there will be more,” Poloncarz said at the Monday news conference. “We are at the mercy of Mother Nature.”