BUFFALO, N.Y. — Two more deaths have been attributed to last month’s winter storm that hit Western New York, bringing the total number of deaths to 42 across the region.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz announced Tuesday that the Erie County Department of Health’s medical examiner confirmed that a woman in Buffalo and a man in Amherst died due to the storm. Poloncarz says the woman died from injuries sustained from lack of oxygen during a power outage, while the man died as a result of injuries suffered from being found in a snowbank.
Of the deaths confirmed so far, 41 happened in Erie County, with one fatality in Niagara County.
In Erie County, three deaths were the result of delayed EMS response due to the storm, 18 were found outside, four were discovered in cars, four were the result of snowblowing or snow shoveling, and 12 were found in their homes.
What You Need To Know
- The death toll from a pre-Christmas blizzard that paralyzed the Buffalo, N.Y., area and much of the country continues to rise as the region prepares for more snow
- The Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office says there are at least 39 deaths in Erie County
- The storm was also blamed for at least another two dozen reported deaths in other parts of the country
- Relief is coming later this week, as forecasts call for temperatures to slowly rise, per the National Weather Service
Roads reopened Thursday, December 29 in storm-besieged Buffalo as authorities continued searching for people who may have died or are stuck and suffering after last week’s blizzard.
The driving ban in New York’s second-most-populous city was lifted just after midnight Thursday, Mayor Byron Brown announced.
“Significant progress has been made” on snow removal, Brown said at a news conference late Wednesday. Suburban roads, major highways and Buffalo Niagara International Airport had already reopened.
Still, Brown urged residents not to drive if they didn’t have to.
The National Guard was going door-to-door to check on people who lost power, and authorities faced the possibility of finding more victims as snow melted amid increasingly mild weather. Buffalo police and officers from other law enforcement agencies also searched for victims, sometimes using officers’ personal snowmobiles, trucks and other equipment.
Some victims have yet to be identified, Poloncarz said at a storm briefing Thursday.
“There are families in this community who still have not been able to identify where a loved one is, they’re missing,” he said.
With the death toll already surpassing that of the area’s notorious Blizzard of 1977 and rising daily, local officials faced questions about the response to last week’s storm. They insisted that they prepared but the weather was extraordinary, even for a region prone to powerful winter storms.
“The city did everything that it could under historic blizzard conditions,” the mayor said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, officials watched a forecast that calls for some rain later in the week as snow melts in temperatures approaching or topping 50 degrees (10 Celsius).
The National Weather Service forecast that any flooding would be minor, but state and local officials said they were preparing nonetheless. Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state was ready to deploy nearly 800,000 sandbags and more than 300 pumps and generators for flooding response efforts if needed.
During his briefing, Poloncarz apologized for publicly criticizing the city of Buffalo’s snow removal efforts as too slow, even “embarrassing,” a day earlier.
“We’ve been dealing with much, including the unfolding issues associated with the deaths, the identification of bodies, individuals who have not yet been identified, and new deaths that are coming in that are absolutely heartbreaking,” said Poloncarz, adding that he was trying to contact Brown to make amends. “I basically lost my focus.”
Brown had rebuffed Poloncarz’s complaints, saying Wednesday that the city had been “working diligently, working around the clock” to clear snow and strove to work cooperatively with others in government and the community.
Brown, Poloncarz and Hochul all are Democrats.
A company that estimates damage from natural disasters said insured losses from the winter storm would be $5.4 billion across 42 states. Karen Clark & Co. said New York, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina sustained the most storm damage, with freezing temperatures, which can result in infrastructure disruptions and burst pipes, accounting for the vast majority of the loss.
