The death toll continues to rise in western New York, where Winter Storm Elliott dumped feet of snow on the area that left emergency services stalled and residents trapped in homes and cars. In Buffalo, winds gusted around 70 mph at the height of the storm and as much as 49 inches of snow fell.
Elliott blasted the Buffalo area with brutal blizzard conditions from Thursday into the weekend. Snow continued Monday and wasn’t expected to end until late Wednesday. Overall, Winter Storm Elliott is being connected to the deaths of at least 56 people in a dozen states nationwide, including those in New York.
According to Weather.com, the worst of the impacts are in Erie County, where County Executive Mark Poloncarz said in a Wednesday news briefing that 34 people are now confirmed dead. One person is also dead in Niagara County, New York. Poloncarz warned the death toll could rise as emergency crews fan out through neighborhoods and check on individuals who called for assistance during the storm.
A special hotline was activated and manned by county staff as the storm bore down. “Initially those calls consisted of people in dire need,” James Blackwell, an official who helped answer calls, said in the briefing. “People trapped in their vehicles, trapped in their houses, wondering what to do. People were scared.”
Poloncarz said the deaths included people who were found in cars, outside, in their homes and some who died of cardiac events while blowing or shoveling snow. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said some victims “were trying to walk out during storm conditions, got disoriented and passed away out in the street,” according to the Associated Press.
“Our police officers are human,” Brown said. “It is painful to find members of your community that are deceased.”
A driving ban remains in effect in the city of Buffalo, which is in Erie County, and motorists are advised to avoid some other areas. More than 100 military police and other law enforcement were being deployed there for traffic control. Hundreds of vehicles towed from where they were stuck or abandoned on local streets are being held in parking lots where owners can pick them up.
Hundreds of cars were abandoned or stuck on roads, and desperate residents took to social media to plead for assistance. In many cases, fire trucks and ambulances couldn’t make it through the feet of snow and drifts. Poloncarz said that people had been stranded in their vehicles for two days in some cases.
A two-day operation is underway to clear at least one lane of every street. First responders were picking up people who needed routine medical care like dialysis and helping essential workers get to their places of employment.
Volunteers were delivering food to those were stuck and helping ferry people to hospitals. Calls were being sent out for more vehicles and snowmobiles to assist. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said more than 550 rescues had been carried out so far.
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