The Buffalo, N.Y., area braced for an additional bout of severe
weather Friday as it reeled from a storm earlier this week that
dumped several feet of snow on the region and claimed 10 lives.
City services shut down, schools remained closed, and the
National Football League was forced to cancel a scheduled game for
Sunday in Buffalo between the Buffalo Bills and the New York
Jets.
"Throughout the day, we've been dealing with numerous reports of
roof collapses," most of which are mobile-home roofs, said Erie
County Executive Mark Poloncarz.
The first part of the storm dropped 60 to 65 inches of snow on
the hardest-hit regions of western New York, according to the
National Weather Service. Snow was falling Thursday evening, and
officials said some hard-hit communities could have a total of nine
feet of snow by the time flakes stop falling sometime Friday.
The region was also bracing for a big melt as soon as Monday,
when temperatures were forecast to reach as high as 60 degrees,
Richard Tobe, deputy Erie County executive, said Thursday at a news
conference. Rain was also in the forecast, which could cause
flooding, he said.
More than 400 plows were clearing snow, New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo's office said Thursday. More than 300 New York National Guard
soldiers and other crews will be assisting with snow removal.
"We are not opening any roads because we still have phase two
that is on its way, which is another two to three feet of snow,"
Mr. Cuomo said Thursday. "Until that happens, we don't want to open
any roads and create another problem."
Jon Hitchcock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service
in Buffalo, said the storm was one of the top five in terms of
snowfall for the region in the past 20 years.
Snowstorms fueled by the lake effect from Lake Erie are typical
for western New York, Mr. Hitchcock said. This week's storm was
different because the weather system didn't move, producing an
abnormally high level of snow accumulation, he said.
"It sat in the exact same spot for about 20 hours," Mr.
Hitchcock said.
Officials said that some people had died when they had "cardiac
events" when they went outdoors to clear their driveways or free
their vehicles from snow drifts. Another person died when struck by
a vehicle on a road where driving had been banned, Mr. Poloncarz
said.
People who need prescription medication or dialysis treatment
are being told to call 911, and those calls are being prioritized
for insulin and medication deliveries, according to Erie County
undersheriff Mark Wipperman.
Write to Joseph De Avila at joseph.deavila@wsj.com
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