Buffalo roads reopen as search continues for victims of deadly winter storm
Roads reopened Thursday in storm-besieged Buffalo as authorities continued searching for people who may have been killed or are stuck and suffering after last week's devastating blizzard, which is now the city's deadliest winter storm on record.
The driving ban in Buffalo, New York's second-most populous city, was lifted just after midnight Thursday, Mayor Byron Brown announced.
"Significant progress has been made" on snow removal, he said at a news conference late Wednesday. Suburban roads, major highways and Buffalo Niagara International Airport had already reopened.
Still, Brown urged residents not to drive if they didn't have to.
More than three dozen deaths have been reported in western New York from the blizzard that raged across much of the country as a winter storm grew into a bomb cyclone — bringing heavy snow and dangerous winds to parts of the U.S. over the holiday weekend — with Buffalo in its crosshairs on Friday and Saturday.
Erie County, which encompasses Buffalo, was one of the areas hit hardest by the storm that became known as "blizzard of the century" and reportedly dropped almost 52 total inches of snow over the county as of Wednesday. By Thursday, storm conditions had killed at least 71 people across eight states, according to a CBS News count, with the death toll in Erie County reportedly rising to 39 — 31 in the city of Buffalo. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz cited the county medical examiner's office when he shared the updated number this week, which surpassed the death toll of 29 from a 1977 blizzard that was considered the worst one to hit Buffalo before last weekend, WIVB reported.
As roads in Buffalo began to reopen, the National Guard was going door to door to check on people who lost power, and authorities faced the possibility of finding more victims as snow melted amid increasingly mild weather. Buffalo police and officers from other law enforcement agencies also searched for victims, sometimes using officers' personal snowmobiles, trucks and other equipment.
With the death toll already surpassing that of the notorious Blizzard of 1977, local officials faced questions about the response to last week's storm. They insisted that they prepared but that the weather was extraordinary, even for a region prone to powerful winter storms.
"The city did everything that it could under historic blizzard conditions," the mayor, a Democrat, said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, officials watched a forecast that calls for some rain later in the week as snow melts in temperatures approaching or topping 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
The National Weather Service forecast that any flooding would be minor, but state and local officials said they were preparing nonetheless. Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, said the state was ready to deploy nearly 800,000 sandbags and more than 300 pumps and generators for flooding response efforts if needed.
"As we turn the corner on this historic winter storm, New York State is continuing to stay prepared ahead of potentially dangerous flooding conditions," Hochul said in a statement. "Our state agency personnel and local emergency responders have been coordinating throughout the storm, and we will continue to do everything we can to protect Western New Yorkers and help our communities recover."