Buffalo death toll rises due to freezing weather in eastern United States

By Gabriella Borter and Ahmed Aboulenein

December 25 – A blizzard hit Buffalo, New York on Christmas Day, trapping people in their cars, causing power outages and increasing the death toll as a system of severe winter storms swept across the States United.

Twenty-eight people have been killed so far in weather-related incidents across the country, according to a tally of NBC News. Cnn reported a total of 26 deaths.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said the storm’s death toll rose by three to seven overnight in the Buffalo region of far western New York, where snowpack reached nearly 1 Sunday .2 meters.

Some of the four deaths reported Sunday morning were found in cars and others in snowdrifts, Poloncarz said, adding that the death toll could continue to rise.

“This is not the Christmas any of us wanted or expected, but let’s try to have as merry a Christmas as possible,” Poloncarz said on Twitter on Sunday. “My condolences to the families who have lost loved ones.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters she has been in contact with the White House and that President Joe Biden’s government will support the state’s request for a federal disaster declaration.

“It will go down in history as the most devastating storm in Buffalo. This is a historic storm and we are still in the midst of it,” Hochul said.

A powerful winter storm that brought freezing temperatures from the Great Plains north to the US-Mexico border was moving east on Sunday, after cutting power to millions late last week and causing flight cancellations during the busy Christmas travel season.

According to PowerOutage.us, more than 200,000 homes and businesses on the US East Coast, Texas and Washington state were left without power on Sunday, a sharp drop from the 1.8 million people who were without power on Saturday. In Buffalo, 16% of residents had no power on Sunday, according to authorities.

More than 1,500 U.S. flights were canceled by noon Sunday, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.

According to Rich Otto, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS extension), Christmas morning temperatures were still well below average across the central and eastern US, and below freezing on the Gulf Coast as well.

In South Florida, iguanas were falling out of trees, crippled by temperatures plummeting to 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius), according to reports from residents and images posted on Twitter.

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In Erie County, about 500 motorists were stranded in their vehicles overnight from Friday to Saturday morning and the National Guard was called in to help with relief efforts, Poloncarz said.

The countywide driving ban was still in effect Sunday.

The Buffalo airport had recorded 43 inches (109 cm) of snow at 7:00 a.m. New York time (1200 GMT) on Sunday, Otto said.

Kentucky authorities have confirmed at least three storm-related deaths in that state, while at least four people were killed and several injured in car crashes in Ohio, where a 50-vehicle rear-end collision forced the closure of the Ohio Turnpike in both directions during a blizzard near Toledo on Friday.