7 dead after Buffalo area hit by ‘devastating’ snowstorm, governor says

Seven people have died after a freezing blizzard with high winds struck the Buffalo, New York, area in a storm that the state’s governor has described as “devastating.”

Some of those who died were found in cars and others were on the street, said Mark Poloncarz, the executive of Erie County, where Buffalo is located.

“There may be more,” Poloncarz said at a briefing Sunday morning.

Six of the dead were in Buffalo, the city said. A driving ban was in effect in the city on Sunday.

Much of Buffalo is impassable, Poloncarz said. He urged people from areas where conditions had improved not to travel to Buffalo to rescue family and friends.

There were around 27,000 customers without power in Erie County Sunday afternoon, according to the outage-tracking site poweroutage.us.

More than 20,000 of those customers were in Buffalo, Poloncarz said. Substations are snowed in and frozen, he said.

Officials have rescued “hundreds and hundreds” of people, including by snowplows, as those were the only vehicles able to reach those stranded in cars, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

“This will go down in history as the most devastating storm in Buffalo’s long, storied history of having battled many battles, many major storms,” she said on Sunday.

Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown said police were asking those with snowmobiles to assist in search and recovery efforts.

By around 10 a.m., about 43 inches of snow — or more than 3 1/2 feet — had fallen at Buffalo’s airport over the past 48 hours, according to the National Weather Service.

There was a period of hours when they could not send out emergency service crews or Department of Public Works crews, Poloncarz said. It’s believed to be the first time that Buffalo’s Fire Department was unable to respond to calls, he said.

“It was bad, is the best way to put it,” Poloncarz said. “It was as bad as anyone has ever seen it.”

Major Winter Storm Brings Snow, Freezing Temperatures To Big Swath Of U.S.
Paul Lamb clears his driveway in Hamburg, N.Y., on Dec. 24, 2022.John Normile / Getty Images

Utility company National Grid had said that because of the “unprecedented severity” of the storm, some crews could not reach the areas where they were needed. The company said Sunday that restoration work was being conducted around the clock.

Some of those without power will likely not get it back until Monday at the earliest, Poloncarz said.

“I know that this is not the news that people wanted to hear, especially on Christmas Day,” he said.

Buffalo had been under blizzard warnings, but by Sunday afternoon it was under a winter storm warning until 4 a.m. Monday.

There could be 8 to 16 additional inches of snow in the region, which includes Buffalo, Batavia, Orchard Park and Springville, according to the National Weather Service. The most snow was expected for the “southtowns” and southwest Erie County.

Officials pleaded with people to stay home if they can, although county workers and other public servants were asked to help relieve their colleagues.

“I cannot overstate how dangerous the conditions still are,” Hochul said, adding, “Just hang in there one more day.”

The situation in Buffalo comes as most of the United States has been hammered by a major winter storm with dangerously low temperatures.

At least 35 people have died in weather-related incidents across the United States, according to an NBC count of reports from officials.

Last month areas south of Buffalo, like Orchard Park, saw around 7 feet of snow. But Poloncarz said the situations do not compare.

He said he has been in contact with the Biden administration to initiate a disaster declaration.

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