A blizzard that paralysed western New York over the Christmas weekend has killed more than two dozen people, as crews struggle 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 1.2 metres 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, up from 13 the night before. The fatalities included cases of people found in snow banks and in cars or who had died from cardiac events while ploughing or blowing snow, county executive Mark Poloncarz said.
More deaths have been reported, Poloncarz said, but it remained for the county medical examiner to determine if they were directly attributable to the weather.
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 cancelled.
The greater Buffalo region, on the edge of Lake Erie near the Canadian border, was hardest hit.
Nearly 1.27m 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 falling, with additional accumulations of up to 30 cm forecast through Tuesday in areas south of Buffalo and north of Syracuse.
Roadways remained littered with cars, buses, ambulances, tow trucks and even ploughs 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 countywide ban on personal road travel that remained in effect on Monday, hundreds of motorists had to be rescued from their vehicles over the weekend.
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.
President Joe Biden tweeted on Monday that he had spoken to Hochul on the phone and that his administration would provide resources to help the region cover the daunting expense of storm rescue and recovery.
“My heart is with those who lost loved ones this holiday weekend. You are in my and Jill’s prayers,” Biden said.
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.
