Poloncarz said hundreds of Erie County motorists were trapped in their vehicles over the weekend, despite a driving ban since Friday, with National Guard troops called in to help with rescues complicated by white-out conditions and drifting snow .
“This is not the Christmas any of us expected or expected,” Poloncarz said on Twitter on Sunday. “My deepest condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones.
The Buffalo Police Department posted an online plea for public assistance in search and recovery efforts, asking people “having a snow mobile and willing to help” to call a special hotline for instructions.
The severity of the storm was remarkable even for a region accustomed to harsh winter weather.
Christina Klafka, 39, a North Buffalo resident, saw shingles blowing off her neighbor’s house and heard her windows rattling from “tornado-like winds.” On Saturday evening there was a power failure along with the entire locality and there was no electricity on Sunday morning as well.
“My TV kept flickering when I was trying to watch a Buffalo Bills and Chicago Bears game. I lost power shortly after the third quarter,” she said.
John Burns, 58, a retiree in North Buffalo, said he and his family were trapped in their home for 36 hours by the storm and extreme cold, which he called “average and bad.”
“No one was outside. No one was walking their dogs,” he said. “Nothing was going on for two days.”
Snowfall totals were hard to gauge, he said, as strong winds reduced accumulation between homes, but a 5-foot drift occurred “in front of my garage.”
New York Governor Cathy Hochul told reporters on Sunday that the Biden administration has agreed to support her request for a federal disaster declaration.
Hochul said some 200 National Guard troops were mobilized in western New York, to provide relief to police and firefighters, conduct health checks and bring supplies to shelters.
The storm headed east on Sunday, at the height of last weekend’s outage after knocking out power to more than 1.5 million customers and forcing thousands of commercial flight cancellations during the busy holiday travel period.