On Christmas Day, a deadly blizzard paralyzed Buffalo, New York, stranding motorists and emergency workers in their cars, leaving thousands of homes without power and adding to the death toll from storms that have killed many. has kept the United States cold for days.
At least 30 people have died in weather-related incidents in the U.S., according to an JEE News tally, since the deep freeze gripped much of the country, along with a Widespread storms with sleet, sleet and gusty winds will roll through the Great Lakes region on Friday.
JEE News reported a total of 26 weather deaths.
Most of the casualties occurred in and around Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Erie in western New York, as freezing cold and heavy “lake effect” snow – the result of cold air blowing over warm lake waters – left the country. Maintained during weekend.
Erie County Executive Mark Polon-Carz said the confirmed death toll from the storm rose to 12 on Sunday, more than three reported overnight in the Buffalo area. Polon Cars said the latest victims were found in cars and snow banks, adding that the death toll could rise.
“This is not the Christmas that any of us hoped for or expected,” Polon Cars said on Twitter on Sunday. “My deepest condolences go out to the families who have lost loved ones.”
New York Governor Cathy Hochol called it an “epic, once-in-a-lifetime” weather disaster, ranking it as the worst winter storm to hit much of the Buffalo area since the blizzard of 1977. In which about 30 people were killed.
“We have now surpassed the scale of this storm, its intensity, its longevity, the intensity of its winds,” Hoechl told an evening news conference, adding that the current storm was possibly the worst in history. “Will go down as a blizzard of the 22nd.”
Save the rescuers
The latest blizzard came about six weeks after setting the record, but a short-lived lake-effect storm hit western New York.
Despite the road travel ban since Friday, hundreds of Erie County motorists were stuck in their vehicles over the weekend. National Guard troops were called in to help with the rescue because of whiteout conditions and drifting snow, Polon-Carz said.
Many snow plows and other equipment sent in on Saturday and Sunday got stuck in the snow, “and we had to send rescue missions to rescue rescuers,” he told reporters.
The Buffalo Police Department posted an online plea to the public to help with search and recovery efforts, asking people who “have a snowmobile and are willing to help” to call the hotline for directions. call
The intensity of the storm was remarkable even for a region accustomed to harsh winters.
Christina Klafka, 39, of North Buffalo, saw shingles fly off her neighbor’s house and heard her windows rattle from “hurricane-like winds.” She was without power in her entire neighborhood on Saturday evening and was still without power on Sunday morning.
“My TV kept flickering when I was trying to watch the Buffalo Bills and Chicago Bears game. I lost power right after the third quarter,” she said.
John Burns, 58, a retiree in North Buffalo, said he and his family were trapped in their home for 36 hours because of the storm and extreme cold, which he called “rude and disgusting.”
“Nobody was out. Nobody was even walking their dogs,” she said. “Nothing was happening for two days.”
Snowfall totals were difficult to predict because strong winds reduced accumulation between homes but piled up 5 feet of drift “in front of my garage,” he added.
Hochul told reporters on Sunday that the Biden administration had agreed to support his request for a federal disaster declaration.
About 200 National Guard troops were mobilized to assist police and fire crews in Western New York, conducting health checks and delivering supplies to shelters, Hochul said.
There was an electric shock
The large storm system was moving eastward Sunday as the outage peaked last weekend, knocking out power to about 1.5 million customers and forcing thousands of commercial flights to be canceled during the busy holiday travel season.
According to PowerOutage.us, more than 150,000 U.S. homes and businesses were without power Sunday, down sharply from 1.8 million as of early Saturday. Polon Cars said 15,000 residents in Buffalo were without power Sunday evening.
An electrical substation was knocked offline and sealed off by an 18-foot snow bank, and utility crews found the entire facility frozen inside, he said.
Starting to bounce back from Saturday’s widespread near-zero readings, Christmas Day temperatures were below average across the central and eastern United States and below freezing south of the Gulf Coast, the National Weather Service said. (NWS) meteorologist Rich Otto said.
About 4 feet of snow was measured at the Buffalo airport as of Sunday, according to the latest NWS data.White-out conditions persisted south of Buffalo through the afternoon as persistent storms dumped 2-3 inches of snow an hour. .
In Kentucky, officials have confirmed three storm-related deaths since Friday. Meanwhile, at least four people were killed and several injured in auto-related crashes in Ohio, where a 50-vehicle pileup closed the Ohio Turnpike during a blizzard on Friday.
Other deaths related to vehicle accidents due to extreme cold or weather have been reported in Missouri, Tennessee, Kansas and Colorado.
