The death toll from the intense blizzard that has covered parts of western New York in nearly four feet of snow has risen to seven, the Erie County executive said at a news conference on Christmas morning. after just one night. According to the county, at least three of the deaths were attributed to medical emergencies that were inaccessible to rescuers because of the storm. It is not clear how the others died.
The blizzard created power outages over the past two days in the western part of the state, including Buffalo, leaving more than 100,000 customers statewide without power at its peak and forcing officials in several counties to shut down. severely affected to issue a driving ban. which remained in place on Sunday. As of Sunday morning, there were still nearly 38,000 New Yorkers without power, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks power outages across the country.
Officials said nearly three days after the blizzard began, people were still trapped in cars on highways and side roads in Buffalo. More complicated rescue efforts were the snow itself that made roads impassable and even trapped emergency responders.
“We have to save the firefighters, we have to save the police officers, we have to save the EMTs,” he said. Mark C. Poloncarz, the county executive, who noted that on Saturday night alone, more than 50 rescues were carried out by a specialized team, many of which included rescuing employees. other first aid. “When rescuers had to be rescued, I’m not sure what else we could do.”
On Sunday morning, the blizzard began to thaw in Buffalo, but the storm moved into communities south of the city, where it dumped up to 3 inches of snow every hour in its path. Mr. Poloncarz appealed to civil servants and hospital staff, asking those who had been on holiday to come to relieve colleagues, some of whom have been working continuously since the storm began on Friday.
“This is not the Christmas we want,” he said. “It’s going to be a Christmas we’ll remember.”
