The number of casualties continues to climb in Western New York and Buffalo following a major winter storm as forecasters say that more snow is set to fall this week, according to local officials.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said in a news conference Monday that “in addition to the 13 confirmed deaths yesterday, the Erie County Department of Health medical examiner’s office has confirmed an additional 12 deaths, bringing the total for the blizzard to 25 deaths county-wide.”
It comes as federal forecasting data show that around 12 inches of snow are possible on Monday into Tuesday around the Buffalo area. Poloncarz said Monday that residents should continue to shelter in place.
“This is not the end yet,” he said at the news conference, according to the AFP news agency. “We are not there.”
More deaths had been reported, Poloncarz said, but the Erie County Medical Examiner’s office was trying to determine if they were directly attributable to the weather.
The blizzard, deemed the area’s worst in 45 years, took form late on Friday and pummeled western New York through the Christmas holiday weekend. It capped an Arctic freeze and winter storm front that had extended over most of the United States for days, stretching as far south as the Mexican border.
At least 50 people have died in U.S. weather-related incidents since late last week, according to reports on Monday morning.
Numbing cold combined with howling winds and heavy “lake-effect” snow—the result of moisture picked up by frigid air moving over warmer lake waters—produced a storm that Gov. Kathy Hochul said would go down in history as “the Blizzard of ’22.”
The governor called it an “epic, once-in-a-lifetime” weather disaster that ranked as the fiercest winter storm to hit Buffalo, New York state’s second-largest city, since a crippling 1977 blizzard that killed nearly 30 people. “It’s a very tenuous situation,” he added, noting that as of Monday, “The city of Buffalo is impassable in most areas.”
More than 15,000 flights have been canceled in recent days, according to Flightaware.com. Around 1,600 were canceled Monday, the website shows.
“We had to send specialized rescue crews to go get the rescuers,” Poloncarz told CNN on Monday, elaborating on the situation. “It was just horrendous, and it was horrendous for 24 hours in a row,” he said.
Poloncarz said that Buffalo residents are “used to snow here, we can handle snow … but with the wind, the blinding views—it was complete whiteouts—and the extreme cold, it was some of the worst conditions that any of us have ever seen.”
“Think about looking just a few feet in front of you at a sheet of white for more than 24 hours in a row. That’s what it was like outside in the worst conditions,” he told CNN. “It was continual blizzard and whiteouts such that no one could see where they were going. Nobody had any idea what was happening.”
National Guard Mobilized
Hundreds of National Guard troops were deployed to deal with rescue efforts in New York, announced Hochul over the past weekend. State troopers, meanwhile, were involved in some 500 rescues by Sunday, she also said, adding that they delivered a baby and helped a man with only 4 percent left on his mechanical heart, reported CNN.
“We’re still in the throes of this very dangerous life-threatening situation,” Hochul said at a weekend press conference, calling on New York residents to stay off the roads. “Our state and county plows have been out there, nonstop, giving up time and putting themselves in danger, driving through blinding snowstorms to clear the roads,” Hochul said.
Despite a ban on road travel imposed since Friday, hundreds of Erie County motorists were stranded in their vehicles over the weekend, with National Guard troops called in to help with rescues hindered by white-out conditions and drifting snow, Poloncarz said Sunday.
Many snow plows and other equipment sent on Saturday and Sunday became stuck in the snow, “and we had to send rescue missions to rescue the rescuers,” he told reporters.
The Buffalo police department posted an online plea to the public for assistance in search-and-recovery efforts, asking those who “have a snow mobile and are willing to help” to call a hotline for instructions.
Christina Klaffka, 39, a North Buffalo resident, watched the shingles blow off her neighbor’s home and listened to her windows rattle from “hurricane-like winds.” She lost power along with her whole neighborhood on Saturday evening, and was still without electricity on Sunday morning.
“My TV kept flickering while I was trying to watch the Buffalo Bills and Chicago Bears game. I lost power shortly after the 3rd quarter,” she said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Jack Phillips is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times based in New York. He covers breaking news.
