Buffalo, New York, says a bomb cyclone forced emergency response and shut down the airport after a weekend low-temperature storm

The mayor of Buffalo said there were some people in his area who were without power and that his own home had no power and the temperature inside was 40 degrees.

About 60% of the U.S. population faced some sort of winter weather advisory over the holiday weekend. Drastically low temperatures stretched from the Great Lakes to the Rio Grande.

Forecasters said a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — had developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.

The storm unleashed its full fury on Buffalo, with hurricane-force winds and snow causing whiteout conditions, paralyzing emergency response efforts — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said almost every fire truck in the city was stranded — and shutting down the airport through Monday, according to officials.

The only warming shelter that I could get to was too far away. I can’t drive, obviously, because I’m stuck,” Manahan said. “And you can’t be outside for more than 10 minutes without getting frostbit.”

An Emergency Manager at a Buffalo Blizzard 2022 in the Presence of a Howling Storm, Persistent with Life, and Searching for a Shelter

The Erie County executive said that the storm was more ferocious than the 1977 storm. “It was just horrendous, and it was horrendous for 24 hours in a row.”

Two people died in their suburban Cheektowaga, New York, homes Friday when emergency crews could not reach them in time to treat their medical conditions, he said, and another died in Buffalo.

Scrolling through the private Facebook group “Buffalo Blizzard 2022,” it’s immediately apparent that while the snow may have stopped falling, residents of the western New York city are still in desperate need.

Ditjak Ilunga of Gaithersburg, Maryland, was on his way to visit relatives in Hamilton, Ontario, for Christmas with his daughters Friday when their SUV was trapped in Buffalo. They spent hours with the engine running in their vehicle that was nearly buried in the snow because they were unable to get help.

By 4 a.m. Saturday, with their fuel nearly gone, Ilunga made a desperate choice to risk the howling storm to reach a nearby shelter. He carried 6-year-old Destiny on his back while 16-year-old Cindy clutched their Pomeranian puppy, stepping into his footprints as they trudged through drifts.

“If I stay in this car I’m going to die here with my kids,” he recalled thinking, but believing they had to try. He cried when the family entered the shelter. I will not forget it in my life.

Strained travelers and locals without power or heat during the Southern Hemisphere December 17-18, 2009: Santa Cruz, South Carolina, and Buffalo

The storm knocked out power in communities from Maine to Seattle, and a major electricity grid operator warned 65 million people across the eastern U.S. of possible rolling blackouts.

In North Carolina, 169,000 customers were without power Saturday afternoon, down from more than 485,000. Officials said the power would not stop for a few days.

• Ohio: Four people were killed when a tractor-trailer crossed the median and hit two SUVs and a pickup on I-75 in south Texas on Saturday morning.

The migrants were hunkered down near the US border as they waited to see if the Supreme Court ruled against them.

The Hendersons were stuck in traffic on I-71 in Kentucky for 34 hours, but they still made it to their Ohio home in time for Christmas.

Buffalo got another 1.6 inches of snowfall on Tuesday, bringing the snowfall total from Friday up to 51.9 inches, and the month of December total up to 64.7 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

Vivian Robinson of Spirit of Truth Urban Ministry in Buffalo said she and her husband have been sheltering and cooking for 60 to 70 people, including stranded travelers and locals without power or heat, who were spending Saturday night at the church.

Many arrived with ice and snow plastered to their clothes, crying, their skin reddened by the single-digit temperatures. On Saturday night, they prepared to spend Christmas together.

Robinson said that the hurt they were experiencing and to see that the church was open gave them a sense of relief. Those who are here are enjoying themselves. It’s going to be different for everyone during the Christmas season.

The Blast of Air from Canada in Buffalo, N.C., April 4, 2009: Emergency Responders and the U.S. Department of Transportation

For six days a blast of polar air from Canada wreaked havoc across the country, leaving power out, canceled flights and dangerous roads in its wake.

According to Buffalo’s Mayor, emergency responders have gone “car by car” to rescue hundreds of stranded motorists.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has called the blizzard a “once-in-a-generation storm,” which has been compared to Buffalo’s famous blizzard of 1977 – a powerful storm that left 23 people dead.

“That number is now below 10,000, and we will continue to work aggressively and strategically with National Grid all day today to continue to reduce that number and get everyone’s power restored,” he added, referring to the local utility.

The National Weather Service said conditions are expected to remain frigid and hazardous on Monday, but start to moderate on Tuesday then continue to slowly improve as the week moves ahead.

That could be good news for winter travelers. Airports continued to report thousands of flight cancellations and delays Monday morning, with those flying to or from the Great Lakes region looking most impacted.

The NWS still advises caution for anyone looking to venture outside: High wind speeds and low temperatures are a recipe for frostbite, which can take root in less than 10 minutes of exposure.

The New York State Police said hundreds of vehicles were abandoned in the snow in Buffalo during the storm. He said authorities were going door- to-door and checking for people.

Mark Poloncarz said at the news conference that a driving ban is still in effect in Buffalo, despite a two-day effort to clear one lane per street for emergency responders.

Snowfall in Erie County, Colorado, is the “hottest place to be” for emergency vehicles – and how dangerous are we going to have to go?

Of the 27 deaths reported in Erie County, three were attributed to an EMS Delay, while others involved people who were outside, in cars, had no heating or suffered cardiac arrest – and the death toll is still expected to rise, officials have said.

And getting the lights back on has been no easy task, as utility crews are faced with dangerous weather conditions that made accessing the substations difficult, according to Hochul.

Many cities and towns are covered in snow. Baraga, Michigan, got 42.8 inches of snow, and Henderson Harbor, New York, got 40.8 inches.

Colorado: Police in Colorado Springs reported two deaths related to the cold since Thursday, with one man found near a power transformer of a building possibly looking for warmth, and another in a camp in an alleyway.

Buffalo remains under a winter weather advisory until Tuesday afternoon, with the possibility of up to 7 more inches of snowfall. However, temperatures will be slightly higher than they have been in previous days, with a high of 30 degrees in the daytime and a low of 26 at night.

Hochul said that the state has enough ready to eat meals for thousands of people, but noted that the aid efforts are not going well due to road conditions.

It is our responsibility to have all the resources on hand. But, when mother nature literally shuts down and creates a wall that you cannot see past, it is not safe, for not just emergency vehicles, but the trucks that are bringing groceries to the stores and the stores are being shutdown anyhow – that is the paralysis we’re experiencing,” Hochul said.

The Buffalo Municipal Snowfalls and the Fate of a Superfluid Car in Erie, N.J., a State of Emergency

President Biden declared a state of emergency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency was authorized to help local disaster relief efforts.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz called the city of Buffalo “impassable,” detailing numerous abandoned cars scattered across roads in all directions.

“We have dump trucks that are trying to scoop up the snow and people in little Honda Civics trying to drive around them,” he said.

While Tuesday’s forecast seems like nothing compared to the 4 feet of snow that fell in some places over the last few days, officials say it will have an impact as responders work to clear streets.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has described the weather system that brought 49 inches of snow over three days at Buffalo Niagara International Airport “one for the ages.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation said the cancellation, delays and customer service response was unacceptable and would examine whether they could have been avoided.

“We have people that got stranded in their vehicles and passed away in their cars. We have people that were walking during blizzard conditions and passed away on the street, passed away in snowbanks,” Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown said. “And we have people that were found that passed away in their homes.”

Complicating matters, the dangerous weather conditions made it difficult for emergency crews and firefighters to respond to calls for help. Even ambulances were getting stuck in the snow and were among hundreds of vehicles that had to be abandoned.

Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said Monday that there were hundreds of unanswered calls for help as the storm slammed into the area, and as conditions improve, officials were focusing on welfare checks and getting people to hospitals as the roads are cleared.

After losing contact with her, the family posted her location to a Buffalo Facebook page to ask for help, and a man called to say he found her and she had no pulse, her sister said.

By the time authorities called the Brown family back on Monday evening to let them know they were ready to go out and rescue the woman, her body had already been removed from the car and transported to the hospital, the family said.

Looting and Fuel Delivery in the Buffalo Area After a Great Winter Storm: An Empirical Report of Two Deaths and Eight Injuries

The county is also bringing in 100 military police, as well as additional troops from the New York State Police Department, to manage traffic control “because it has become so evident that too many people are ignoring the ban,” Poloncarz said.

• New Hampshire: The hiker was found dead on Christmas morning, according to the Fish and Game Department.

The flood risk is small, according to the National Weather Service, which said that snow melting alone “rarely causes flooding.” And even though there’s light rain forecast for the region, “it should take around an inch of rain from this system before flooding becomes a concern,” the weather service said.

The National Weather Service is collaborating with the city on what potentially could happen after last week’s events.

Hochul said that the highways were open by Tuesday as a sign that the storm was turning the corner.

As roadways are cleared, officials were also working to coordinate deliveries of fuel to emergency crews and grocery supplies to markets, according to Poloncarz.

After the storm, local governments requested help with their diesel needs, Poloncarz said. We were delivering specialized deliveries to communities that might have been going out of business so that their trucks could stay on the road.

Officials have also been responding to reports of looting. As of Tuesday evening, eight people have been arrested in Buffalo in connection to suspected winter storm looting, according to a tweet from the Buffalo Police Department.

“It is horrible that while residents of our community have died in this storm that people are out looting,” Mayor Brown said, but noted “this is a minority of individuals.”

Many posts ask for groceries, especially baby formula and diapers. Others are seeking rides to dialysis appointments — a service that the county says it is providing to people who call a blizzard assistance hotline number. A citywide driving ban, which was in place for 6 days, made it illegal for people to try to drive to a grocery store or pharmacy, forcing neighbors to turn to each other to get by in the storm and immediate aftermath. And for as many people who are asking for help, there are those offering assistance.

Is anyone still needing a driveway cleared? one person volunteers. Someone else posts a link to a long list of towed cars. The poster encourages everyone to join the group of restaurants that are donating meals.

“This is an instrumental tool that allows us to talk to each other in real time and get each other help,” explains Mark Johnson, a Buffalo resident whose offer of supplies and rides has more than 180 replies.

The Facebook Group “Buffalo Blizzards 2022” During the 2014 Snowstorm: A Story from a Illegally Driven Driver

Johnson has been driving around the city, illegally, for two days before the driving ban lifted. He says that he has been stopped by the police three times.

“If they’re going to put me in jail, I’m just gonna keep accruing my tickets, especially since I have an SUV packed to the ceiling with donations,” Johnson said by phone from the parking lot of Kensington Pizza on Wednesday.

“It’s like tag, you’re it,” explains Johnson, who says he feels a duty to take on this task. “It’s not about, ‘Oh, I hope somebody helps out,’ because you’re the hope that was sent!”

“Buffalo Blizzards 2022” now has more than 70,000 active members. Its admin, Erin Aquilina, started the page after a 2014 blizzard that also slammed the city with 4 feet of snow. She says that membership skyrocketed with at least 46000 new members joining in the last four days.

“While there’s no confirmed number of people that were assisted by this group, it is fair to say that hundreds to thousands of people relied on the information being communicated,” says Aquilina in a Facebook message to NPR.

Aquilina and the four other administrators of the group have worked long hours through the storms, using cell data and phone batteries to approve all of the more than 5,000 posts.

And the pace isn’t slowing down now that the storm has passed — the timing of the weather meant a missed payday, so some people can’t afford to buy supplies and are relying on donations coordinated through the group.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/29/1145882657/buffalos-snowbound-residents-turn-to-a-facebook-group-for-help-from-their-neighb

“Buffalo is the ‘City of Good Neighbors’” — An Alternative to the Wall-String Solution

Aquilina says that “Buffalo is the ‘City of Good Neighbors’, and if you read through these posts, you would see a lot of people stepping up to help each other.”