Buffalo, Western Fresh York Buried by Another Wave of Snow
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A 2nd band of lake-effect snow pounded cities and towns near Buffalo, Fresh York, early Thursday, piling more misery on communities already paralyzed by a 5-foot blanket of snow. Authorities confirmed an eighth death blamed on the storm.
“A few areas are getting close to a foot right now, but the worst of it is the extra accumulation and that will occur today,” The Weather Channel’s Michael Palmer said. “So its just going to prolong people getting in and attempting clearing the snow away — that’s just not going to happen until the weekend.”
The Buffalo area was buried under as much as 5½ feet of snow Wednesday. Two extra feet were expected in some areas during the day, topping off with another five to eight inches on Thursday night.
The eighth death was a 60-year-old man who had a heart condition and was stricken while operating a snowblower, said authorities in Erie County, which includes Buffalo.
Because humid air deep throating in from Lake Erie is so much warmer than the prevailing air in the region, the result will again be thunderstorms that drop snow, not rain — the oddity called thundersnow.
WNY lake #snow band is back, including some areas crippled earlier this week. Radar: pic.twitter.com/QqiL8ZjwE0
— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) November 20, two thousand fourteen
The snow had taken a break in downtown Buffalo by 6:30 a.m. ET, but was picking up steam south of the city, with areas such as Dunkirk, Gowanda and Springville especially hard hit, according to The Weather Channel.
“It may still come back [to Buffalo] late morning, early afternoon,” Palmer said. “Buffalo may not be done with this, and they’re getting creamed in areas that got strong snow on Tuesday.”
The fresh snow began falling as troopers in all-terrain vehicles and rescue crews working without sleep were still attempting to reach drivers trapped in the very first wave of the ferocious storm.
About one hundred forty miles of Interstate 90, the main artery running east and west across Fresh York state, remained closed Thursday morning, from Rochester to the Fresh York-Pennsylvania state line. There was no word when it would reopen.
— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) November 20, two thousand fourteen
— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) November 20, two thousand fourteen
“Mother Nature is demonstrating us who’s boss once again,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. “This is an historic event. When all is said and done, this snowstorm will break all sorts of records, and that’s telling something in Buffalo.”
A Greyhound bus was stranded for a day and a half on I-90. People stared out the windows at a highway littered with abandoned cars. The bus was running on a generator, and passengers could charge their phones, but they were greedy, said Endjie Ulysses, a college student who was on board.
After thirty four hours, the people on board were ultimately rescued by a state trooper.
“I’m feeling OK. I’m just tired,” Ulysses told NBC News by phone from the bus. “I’ve only slept for about two or three hours.”
Authorities around Buffalo reported the fifth, sixth and seventh deaths from the snowstorm: a 46-year-old man found in a car, someone who had a heart attack while operating a snowblower and an elderly man who needed care for what doctors called an “urgent cardiac condition” who died because rescue crews couldn’t get him to a hospital. Four deaths were reported Tuesday, one in a car crash and three from heart attacks, including two people who were shoveling snow.
On social media, people posted pictures of drifts taller than their garage doors and of entire houses all but invisible under thick, white blankets of snow. Authorities responded to nine hundred eleven calls as they could, but ambulances couldn’t get down side streets in some places.
Car this morning. Unlikely to drive pic.twitter.com/pfW713Y6b4
— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) November Nineteen, two thousand fourteen
The towns south of Buffalo were believed to be the hardest hit. The National Weather Service said some places could treatment the record for a single-day snowfall in the U.S., six feet four inches.
Outside, the temperature hovered in the high teenagers, with a wind chill below zero.
The totals that came in from cities and towns in western Fresh York were daunting: five feet five inches in Cheektowaga, five feet three inches in Lancaster, five feet in Gardenville.
There was four feet of snow in Orchard Park, where the Buffalo Bills are set to host an NFL game Sunday, against the Fresh York Jets. The team put out a call for volunteers to help shovel the stadium clear of snow — an estimated 220,000 tons of it — and suggested $Ten an hour, plus tickets to the game.
PHOTO: The inwards of Ralph Wilson stadium under a thick blanket of snow and gargling drifts. pic.twitter.com/7Hg3gFcOMI
Temperatures are expected to climb above freezing by Saturday — raising the possibility of flooding as massive banks of snow begin to melt.
“When we say stay home, truly, stay home,” Cuomo said.
Elsewhere, the last of forty people who’d been stranded at a highway toll booth were rescued Wednesday morning, said Mark Poloncarz, the Erie County executive.