Winter storm Elliott – latest: Driving ban lifted in Buffalo as blizzard deaths hit 38
Buffalo region worst affected in US with at least 38 deaths after blizzard dumped 50 inches of snow on city
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Your support makes all the difference.One of the coldest Christmases in modern memory has left more than 60 people dead across the US, with 38 people killed in and around the city of Buffalo, which was hammered by over 50 inches of snow.
Nearly a week after the extreme blizzard, the driving ban in Buffalo was lifted on Thursday, although motorists have been advised to be careful around snow-removal equipment and at intersections.
“Hundreds of very large pieces of equipment will still be out clearing streets from curb-to-curb,” Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz warned in a tweet.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Poloncarz confirmed three additional deaths, marking the deadliest storm in western New York in at least two generations.
National Guard went door to door conducting welfare checks in neighbourhoods that lost electricity. As the city continues to dig out of the storm, the death toll is expected to climb further.
Beyond New York state, winter storm Elliott’s icy bite also saw temperatures plunge to record lows in parts of Montana, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming, and wrought havoc on Christmas travel plans.
Blizzard forced Doula to coach woman through childbirth over phone
Melissa Carrick, a doula, said the blizzard forced her to coach a pregnant client through childbirth by telephone. An ambulance crew transported the woman to a hospital about 45 minutes south of Buffalo because none of the closer hospitals were reachable.
“In any other normal Buffalo storm? I would just go because that’s what you do – just drive through the snow,” she said. “But you knew this was different.”
AP
Hochul thanks Biden and lawmakers for partnering to aid New York in disaster
Hochul toured aftermath on Monday
New York Governor Kathy Hochul toured the aftermath in Buffalo — her hometown — on Monday, calling the blizzard “one for the ages.” Almost every fire truck in the city became stranded Saturday, she said.
Ms Hochul noted the storm came a little over a month after the region was inundated with another “historic” snowfall. Between the two storms, snowfall totals are not far off from the 95.4 inches (242 centimeters) the area normally sees in an entire winter season.
The National Weather Service said the snow total at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport stood at 49.2 inches (1.25 meters) at 10 a.m. Monday. Officials say the airport will be shut through Wednesday morning.
AP
Buffalo community struggled through power outages
With the snowstorm came power outages, the majority of which have now been resolved, but many were forced to improvise in difficult conditions.
Shahida Muhammad told WKBW that an outage knocked out power to her one-year-old son’s ventilator. She and the child’s father manually administered breaths from Friday until Sunday when rescuers saw her desperate social media posts and came to their aid. She said her son was doing well despite the ordeal and described him as “a fighter”.
In a makeshift hut in her living room, Trisha LoGrasso was still huddled around a space heater Monday with three of her children and her eldest daughter’s boyfriend. The temperature inside her Buffalo home was 42 degrees (5.5 C). She was without heat because of a gas leak, and burst pipes left her with no running water.
“I’ve lived here my whole life, and this is the worst storm I’ve ever seen,” the 48-year-old said.
Melissa Osmon and her husband James were without power for more than 72 hours in the Buffalo suburb of Williamsville, and would retreat to their car to stay warm for hours at a time.
“We even watched the Buffalo Bills game on our phone,” Osmon said, speaking by phone from her GMC Acadia.
“You can see your breath inside the house,” she said. “That’s how cold it is.”
AP
What role might climate change have played in the storm’s severity?
Scientists say the climate change crisis may have contributed to the intensity of the storm. That’s because the atmosphere can carry more water vapour, which acts as fuel, said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Victor Gensini, a meteorology professor at Northern Illinois University, likened a single weather event to an “at-bat” — and the climate as your “batting average.”
“It’s hard to say,” Dr Serreze said. “But are the dice a little bit loaded now? Absolutely.”
AP
Southwest Airlines trying to get back on track
Cancelling the majority of its scheduled flights again today, Southwest Airlines is trying to get back on track after a holiday weekend of travel chaos set off by Winter Storm Elliott.
Buffalo hardest hit, but 60 lives lost nationwide
At least 60 lives have been lost in weather-related incidents nationwide, according to an NBC News tally, from an arctic deep freeze and sprawling storm front that extended over most of the United States for days, as far south as the Mexican border.
The larger storm system has wreaked havoc with travel across the country over the holiday weekend, stranding passengers as thousands of flights were canceled.
The greater Buffalo region, on the edge of Lake Erie near the Canadian border, was hardest hit.
Nearly 50 inches (1.27 metres) of snow was measured at Buffalo Airport as of Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
Although blinding winds that created white-out conditions for more than two days had abated by Monday, snow kept coming down, with accumulations of up to a foot (30 cm) more forecast through Tuesday in areas south of Buffalo and north of Syracuse.
Reuters
After a blizzard for the ages... more snow
Storm-battered Buffalo braced Tuesday for fresh snow while still striving to recover from an epic blizzard that killed at least 28 people, stranded others in cars for days and shuttered the city’s airport.
The National Weather Service predicted that as much as 2 inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) of snow could fall Tuesday in Erie County, which includes Buffalo, the second-largest city in New York, with about 275,000 residents.
While that’s nothing like the massive storm that dropped over 4 feet of snow in some places starting on Christmas Eve, “any additional snowfall that Buffalo may continue to have today is going to be impactful,” said lead forecaster Bob Oravec.
Here’s where things stand now in western New York state:
More snow in store for Buffalo after blizzard 'for the ages'
Storm-battered Buffalo is bracing for fresh snow while still striving to recover from an epic blizzard that killed at least 28 people, stranded others in cars for days and shuttered the city's airport
Southwest Airlines faces scrutiny after cancellations
The US Department of Transportation said it will look into flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines that have left travelers stranded at airports across the country amid an intense winter storm that has killed dozens of people.
Many airlines were forced to cancel flights due to the weather, but Southwest was by far the leader in canceled flights. About 4,000 domestic US flights were cancelled on Monday, according to the tracking website FlightAware, and 2,900 of those were Southwest's.
Problems at Southwest continued on Tuesday, and the airline warns it will be operating at a reduced scheduled for days.
Other major airlines, including American, United, Delta and JetBlue, suffered cancellations rates of between none and 2 per cent on Tuesday. The cancellation rate at Southwest Airlines was 62 per cent, according to FlightAware, after the airline cancelled more that 70 per cent of its flights Monday.
Southwest spokesman Jay McVay said at a press conference in Houston that cancellations snowballed as storm systems moved across the country, leaving flight crews and planes out of place
“So we’ve been chasing our tails, trying to catch up and get back to normal safely, which is our number one priority as quickly as we could,” he said. "And that’s exactly how we ended up where we are today.”
More than 2,800 more flights had already been canceled in the US as of 7am on Tuesday and problems are likely to carry over at least into Wednesday.
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