Buffalo, New York, recovers from deadly blizzard; warming could bring rain and sleet

By Lindsay DeDario and Rich McKay

BUFFALO, N.Y. (Reuters) – Storm-weary road crews and residents of Western New York struggled Tuesday to dig out a deadly weekend blizzard, with snow still falling and forecasts of rapid warming and rain that could cause flooding and freeze the ground. landscape with melting snow.

The region in and around Buffalo, New York, in the lee of Lakes Erie and Ontario, has become the starting point for a deep Arctic freeze and a massive winter storm that is ‘s spread over most of the United States last week and over the Christmas holidays to the South. Mexican border.

The number of confirmed storm-related deaths in New York’s Erie and Niagara counties rose to 32 on Tuesday, authorities said, as snowfall began to ease. Emergency crews continued to locate and remove vehicles buried under mounds of snow and drifts several meters high.

Some of the dead were found frozen in cars, others in snow banks outside, while others died in medical emergencies such as cardiac arrest while shoveling snow, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz told reporters.

“We are recovering from the worst storm I have ever seen, certainly in terms of deaths due to the wrath of Mother Nature,” he said.

Nationwide, at least 60 people have died in weather-related incidents in recent days, NBC News reported.

In and around Buffalo, up to 52 inches of snow fell in four days, and slightly more was expected Tuesday evening, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

The situation was expected to change radically. The NWS is forecasting a rapid thaw later this week, with spring temperatures well above freezing and well above normal, accompanied by rain that could trigger flooding.

“This is one of the reasons why some streets are receiving additional clearance to allow for proper drainage of meltwater,” Poloncarz said on Twitter.

Progress has been slow due to the volume and depth of the snow, which Poloncarz said “is not plowable.”

“MUCH WORK TO BE DONE”

Front-loading tractors were brought in to shovel the snow into dump trucks to be transported and dumped elsewhere. Poloncarz said it would take two days to open a lane on every street in the city.

Giant snow blowers have been deployed to help clear several major highways clogged with towering snowdrifts. A ban on personal travel by road was still in effect in Buffalo.

Hundreds of power company linemen were restoring power, and Poloncarz tweeted that some 4,500 customers remained without power Tuesday as crews cleared downed trees with chain saws.

For residents essentially stuck in their homes for two days, the easing of the storm brought awareness to the amount of snow that fell during whiteout conditions that limited their visibility.

“We were looking out the window and the wind was blowing so much that we couldn’t really tell if there was any accumulation, but when the wind finally died down we had a lot of work to do,” said Jim Nowak, who was shoveling. Tuesday.

Accounts also emerged of residents who took in strangers caught outside at the height of the blizzard and spent much of the holiday weekend with them. One was a hair salon owner who told the Buffalo News he sheltered 40 people the first night of the storm and about 30 the next night.

NWS Meteorologist Bob Oravec of the NWS Weather Prediction Center in Maryland predicted two more inches of snow would fall in Western New York on Tuesday, but said it was “probably the last”.

“It will warm up soon. On Thursday the high will be 46 (8 degrees Celsius). On Saturday it will be 54 (12 degrees Celsius),” Oravec said. Tuesday remained cold, with a high of 28F (minus 2C) and a low of 20F (minus 6C), he said.

Buffalo, New York state’s second-largest city, was hardest hit by the blizzard, which took shape Friday on the Great Lakes and extended its grip to the Ohio and Upper Mississippi valleys and to the Appalachian Mountains.

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul called it an “epic, once-in-a-lifetime” weather disaster, the worst blizzard to hit the Buffalo area in 45 years.

The county called in 100 military police from the state National Guard as well as New York City officers to help manage traffic and enforce road restrictions.

Buffalo residents with plows attached to their Jeeps and pickup trucks helped clear side streets. People walked a kilometer or more in lanes cut by snow plows to reach convenience stores and supermarkets that were beginning to reopen.

Poloncarz, speaking at a press briefing Tuesday, urged residents to stay home and the curious to stay away.

“Please stay out of the city of Buffalo,” he said.

(Reporting by Lindsay DeDario in Buffalo and Rich McKay in Atlanta; additional writing and reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; editing by Donna Bryson, Howard Goller, David Gregorio and Leslie Adler)