- Madeline Halpert
- BBC News – Washington
A massive winter storm that hit North America has claimed more lives in upstate New York, local officials confirmed.
Marc Poloncars, an official for Erie County, where Buffalo is located, confirmed 34 deaths Wednesday. Local authorities are still trying to identify three victims.
The storm, which hit the United States last weekend, killed more than 60 people in eight US states.
“It’s a terrifying storm that has left a very large number of people dead,” Boloncars said at a news conference Wednesday morning. Despite this, conditions have started to improve in the areas most affected by this climatic phenomenon.
About 1,000 households in the county are still without power, while about 95 percent of Erie residents are expected to have power back on by the end of the day Wednesday, according to Poloncars.
The city of Buffalo, which had about 4 feet of snow, has made significant progress clearing streets, according to Erie officials.
Polonkars said 65 percent of roads now contain at least one passable lane, although driving is still prohibited due to dangerous conditions caused by bad weather.
Meanwhile, work resumed at Buffalo Niagara International Airport at eleven in the morning local time after a closure that has been going on since last Friday, while work on the railway lines has resumed in a limited way.
And the U.S. National Guard is going door-to-door in county neighborhoods where medical tests are no longer possible due to the aftermath of the storm, as local officials fear some residents living alone may have died in the storm. .
As the temperature improves and the snow melts, the U.S. county is preparing for potential flooding, according to Marc Poloncars.
Elsewhere in the United States and Canada, residents are still dealing with the aftermath of a winter storm.
Gusty winds and heavy rains saw states across the Western US and the Rocky Mountain region.
The Weather Center has forecast that “the rapid and deep storm could lead to flash flooding and thunderstorms,” which are the weather phenomena expected late next week.
The storm has already caused flooding in the western states of Washington and Oregon, with about 80,000 people without power as of Wednesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.
Olympia, the capital of the US state of Washington, saw a record 5.6 meters, according to local officials.
Some Canadians are also experiencing power outages from the superstorm, including 19,000 people in the province of Quebec, according to Canada’s Hydro Quebec Electric Company.
And in the Canadian province of Ontario, 10,000 people are still without electricity so far, according to power company Hydro One.
