Erie County and its key city of Buffalo, in western New York, have been the epicenter of a deadly winter storm that slammed the United States over the holiday weekend
Buffalo – The monster storm that killed dozens in the United States over the Christmas weekend continued to inflict misery on New York state and air travellers nationwide Tuesday, as stories emerged of families trapped for days during the “blizzard of the century.”
The number of deaths attributed to the winter storm — most of them in road accidents — rose to at least 50 after officials confirmed another fatality in western New York’s Erie County, the epicenter of the crisis.
“Unfortunately, police expects that number to rise,” tweeted Byron Brown, mayor of the lakeside county’s biggest city Buffalo — which has been paralyzed for five days by chest-deep snow banks and power outages, and where more snowfall was forecast on Tuesday.
Kathy Hochul, New York state’s governor and a Buffalo native, described the storm aftermath as resembling “a war zone.”
“Certainly it is the blizzard of the century,” Hochul told reporters Monday.
As temperatures plummeted, commuters and some residents fleeing their freezing homes became trapped on highways, unable to be rescued.
The family of one 22-year-old Buffalo resident, Anndel Taylor, said she died in her car after getting stuck on her way home from work.
A video sent by Taylor and posted by her sister shows her vehicle covered up to its windows in snow.
Emergency responders, who themselves became stuck attempting to rescue her, found her dead 18 hours later, possibly due to carbon monoxide poisoning, her family in North Carolina told local TV station WSOC-TV.
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