Buffalo-area death toll grows to 16 as city digs out from blizzard

Officials on Sunday reported 13 additional deaths in Erie County, N.Y., attributed to the catastrophic snowstorm that has wreaked havoc across much of the country, bringing to 16 the number of confirmed blizzard-related fatalities in the hard-hit Buffalo area.

The people who died were found in homes and on the street, said Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz, warning that additional fatalities could be discovered later. The names were not released.

Heavy snow, wind and whiteout conditions paralyzed Buffalo, despite the city’s extensive winter equipment and experience with heavy snowfalls, and officials said the disaster may go down as the worst in the region’s history. More than 27,000 households in Erie County remained without power early Sunday, officials said.

As the snow shifted south and winds subsided Sunday, crews were contending with power substations that are frozen and need specialized equipment for repairs, officials said in a briefing. Some first responders required rescue during the storm, and two warming centers closed after losing power. The operations center that handles 911 calls nearly had to be shut down after its fire-suppression system ruptured, causing flooding.

Poloncarz said crews reached the home where it had been reported that a 1-year-old baby was being kept alive on a ventilator but found no one there and had not been able to contact members of the family.

“It was bad, is the best way to put it. It was as bad as anyone’s ever seen,” Poloncarz said, adding that he has been in touch with the Biden administration as well as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) about obtaining additional resources. “This is a snowstorm that will never be forgotten, due to the ferocity of it.”

Briefing reporters later Sunday morning, Hochul said National Guard members were on the ground in the hardest-hit areas of Erie County, with more on the way, helping doctors and nurses get to hospitals and rescuing people stuck in vehicles.

“This is a war with Mother Nature, and she has been hitting us with everything she has,” said the governor, who served as Erie County clerk from 2007 to 2011. “This is one for the ages, and we’re still in the middle of it.”

The blast of Arctic air continued to chill much of the eastern United States, according to the National Weather Service, but is expected to weaken as it drifts eastward, with temperatures gradually warming over the next few days.

The number of utility customers without power was significantly down from Friday, when it reached 1.5 million, according to poweroutage.us. But there were still tens of thousands without power early Sunday afternoon, including nearly 70,000 in Maine and nearly 40,000 in New York state, the website said.

The storm snarled traffic and travel plans over the Christmas holiday, with more than 1,600 flights canceled in the United States by Sunday afternoon, according to Flight Aware, compared with more than 3,488 canceled on Saturday.

“This is not the type of system you see every day in terms of intensity,” Ashton Robinson Cook, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said of the Arctic blast that over the last few days stretched from Washington state to Florida. The storm pummeled the Great Lakes region with the heaviest snow, he said, and could still drop additional inches on the Buffalo area even as the cold air drifts to the northeast.

In Erie County, a ban on driving remained in place, and officials called on residents to keep their water running so that pipes would not freeze. Officials said the region, which received several feet of snow in a 48-hour period, is used to shoveling out when such snowfall occurs.

But during this blizzard, in addition to frigid temperatures, wind gusts that reached to nearly 80 mph created dangerous drifts and whiteout conditions that blinded drivers. Cook, the meteorologist, said the gusts whipped up the snow for roughly 40 hours.

“It’s like putting in front of you a sheet of white paper and just keeping it there,” Poloncarz said.

He pleaded with county employees who have been home for the past two days to report to work and relieve their exhausted colleagues.

“This was not the Christmas that we wanted,” he said. “It will be a Christmas that we remember.”