A wild winter storm that swept across most of the United States over the holiday weekend has killed not less than 60 people and the death toll is about to rise as hard-hit Buffalo struggles to dig up greater than 4 feet of snow.
The storm stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande on the border with Mexico left not less than 60 people dead, according to NBC News.
The death toll included 28 individuals who died in western Recent York, where forecasters predicted up to 9 inches of snow could fall by Tuesday.
Rescue teams in the area are working frantically to rescue stranded residents – and officials have warned that the death toll could rise.
“We’re seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, but it surely’s not over yet,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said at a Monday news conference. “We’re not there.”
In Buffalo, where 20 people lost their lives in snowy conditions, bodies were discovered in vehicles and under drifts of snow.
![Water from Lake Erie froze a restaurant during a winter storm in Hamburg, New York.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/hamburgh-restaurant-ice-lake-erie.jpg?w=1024)
Considered one of them was 22-year-old Anndel Taylor, from Charlotte, North Carolina, who was caught in a blinding storm on her way home from work. WSOC reported.
A tragic woman who was stuck in her automotive for 18 hours managed to send her family a heartbreaking final video that shows her automotive covered in snow.
On Monday night, President Biden issued a federal declaration of emergency for the Empire State, authorizing government assistance to state and native governments.
![Two people rescued after being stuck in a car during a winter storm for several days.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/buffalo-snow-car-stranded-rescue.jpg?w=768)
“My heart goes out to those that have lost family members this holiday weekend. You might be in my and Jill’s prayers,” the president wrote in an earlier tweet.
Governor Kathy Hochul, who described the storm as a “blizzard of the century”, stressed it was too early to let the guard down and urged people to stay indoors.
Weather continued to thwart air travel plans, with 90% of flights canceled at Buffalo Airport and Southwest Airlines – the largest carrier in 23 of the top 25 U.S. travel markets – canceling greater than 60% of its 2,510 flights, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
Follow all the coverage of the deadly winter storm in Western Recent York
By late Monday night, greater than 3,900 domestic flights had been cancelled, in or out of the country, and nearly 8,200 flights had been delayed due to the deep freeze.
Over the weekend, temperatures across the United States dipped below freezing in all 48 contiguous states.
Amongst the storm-related deaths were 10 in Ohio, including an electrocuted utility employee and people killed in several automotive crashes.
Six drivers were also killed in crashes in Missouri, Kansas, and Kentucky; Vermont woman hit by falling branch; man found frozen to death in Colorado; and a girl who fell under ice on the Wisconsin River.
But the greater Buffalo region, on the fringe of Lake Erie, was hit hardest by the weather.
Roads remained affected by vehicles, including ambulances, tow trucks and even plows that had been buried under high mounds of snow.
“I just have to offer my deepest condolences to those that have lost a loved one as a results of this terrible situation,” said Poloncarz.
“I never thought I’d face this. I believed the storm we faced in 2014 could be the worst with 14 deaths, but it surely far surpassed it,” he said on Monday.
As of late Monday, driving bans were in effect in Buffalo as well as Lackawanna and Cheektowaga, according to Buffalo News.
![Vehicles are trapped under heavy snow on the streets of downtown Buffalo, New York.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/downtown-buffalo-snow.jpg?w=1024)
![Forecasters predicted up to 9 inches of snow could fall in western New York by Tuesday.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/arctic-chill-slowly-exits-weather.jpg?w=1024)
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown warned residents to stay off the roads.
“You are still stuck there.” Many streets in the city of Buffalo are still impassable. Now we have plows on nets and secondary. We at the moment are on residential streets, but the road conditions are still very difficult,” he said at a press conference.
The mayor said the city is focusing its efforts on “safety of life”, trying to reach stranded motorists, helping emergency personnel respond to medical calls and helping National Grid gain access to power plants, according to the news site.
Jackie Bray, commissioner of the state’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, said that around 12,500 households were without power in Erie County late Monday, up from about 23,000 the previous evening.
![The historic winter storm caused more than 3,900 flights to be canceled domestically and nearly 8,200 flights delayed.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/chicago-airport-luggage-flight-delays.jpg?w=1024)
Buffalo doula Melissa Carrick said a blizzard forced her to guide a pregnant woman on the phone.
An ambulance transported the woman to a hospital about 45 minutes south of the city as none of the nearby hospitals were available.
“In another normal storm in Buffalo? I might just go, because that is what you do – you simply drive in the snow,” said Carrick. But you knew it was something else.
Melissa Osmon and her husband, James, were without power for greater than 72 hours in the Buffalo suburb of Williamsville – and struggled to keep warm of their automotive for hours.
![Backhoe is digging on Potomac Avenue to repair Buffalo's water supply.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/excavator-water-line-repair-buffalo.jpg?w=1024)
“We even watched the Buffalo Bills game on our phone,” Osmon said, speaking to her GMC Acadia over the phone. “You’ll be able to see your breath in the house – it is so cold.”
Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said the climate change crisis can have contributed to the storm’s intensity because the atmosphere can carry more water vapor, which acts as fuel.
Victor Gensini, a professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University, likened a single weather event to a “bat” and the climate to an “average strike.”
“It’s hard to say, but are the bones a bit of strained now? Absolutely, he said.
With Postal Wires