Blizzard kills 13 in Buffalo, N.Y., area

Buffalo, New York, where 43 inches of snow fell as of Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service. The snowfall and blizzard conditions made roads impassable, froze power substations and left more than a dozen people dead, Erie County officials said.

Dec 25 (Reuters) – A lethal blizzard paralyzed Buffalo, New York, on Christmas Day, trapping motorists and rescue workers in their vehicles, leaving thousands of homes without power and raising the death toll from storms that have chilled much of the United States for days.

At least 30 people have died in U.S. weather-related incidents, according to an NBC News tally, since a deep freeze gripped most of the nation, coupled with snow, ice and howling winds from a sprawling storm that roared out of the Great Lakes region on Friday.

Much of the loss of life has centered in and around Buffalo at the edge of Lake Erie in western New York, as numbing cold and heavy “lake-effect” snow – the result of frigid air moving over warmer lake waters – persisted through the holiday weekend.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said the storm’s confirmed death toll climbed to 13 on Sunday, up from three reported overnight in the Buffalo region. The latest victims included some found in cars and some in snow banks, Poloncarz said, adding that the death tally would likely rise further.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul called it an “epic, once-in-a-lifetime” weather disaster that ranked as the fiercest winter storm to hit the greater Buffalo area since a crippling 1977 blizzard that killed nearly 30 people.

“We have now surpassed the scale of that storm, in its intensity, the longevity, the ferocity of its winds,” Hochul told an evening news conference, adding that the current storm would likely to go down in history as “the blizzard of ’22.”

Christina Klaffka, 39, a North Buffalo resident, watched the shingles blow off her neighbor’s home and listened to her windows rattle from “hurricane-like winds.” She lost power along with her whole neighborhood on Saturday evening, and was still without electricity on Sunday morning.

“My TV kept flickering while I was trying to watch the Buffalo Bills and Chicago Bears game. I lost power shortly after the 3rd quarter,” she said.

John Burns, 58, a retiree in North Buffalo, said he and his family were trapped in their house for 36 hours by the storm and extreme cold that he called “mean and nasty.”

A powerful Arctic winter storm sweeping across the US and Canada has been linked to at least 19 deaths ahead of the holiday weekend.

The storm, which extends more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) from Texas to Quebec, is affecting some 135 million people on the busiest travel days of the year.

Severe weather alerts stretch from coast to coast and reach as far south as the US-Mexico border and Florida, the Sunshine State.

The US National Weather Service (NWS) says more than 100 daily cold temperature records could be tied or broken in the next few days. Nashville, Tennessee, has already seen its temperatures fall below zero for the first time in 26 years.

High winds whip around 7.5 inches of new snow at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as workers prepare a Sun Country Airlines plane for take off.

Major airports elsewhere have cancelled thousands of flights as the storm intensifies. In anticipation of disruptions, airlines including United, Delta and American have offered to waive fees for travellers who wish to reschedule their flights.

Some travellers were still arriving for flights at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Thursday – even with more warnings being issued.

A storm warning in Chicago is in effect until 6:00 (CST) Saturday, with forecasts of several inches of snow and winds topping 50mph (80km/h)

Workers were already out in force clearing away as the snowfall began in a western suburb of Chicago.

In many states, people have been urged to stay indoors. As temperatures dropped, only a handful of commuters were waiting for an L train during the lighter-than-usual evening rush hour in the city.

Conditions deteriorated further, into what is known as a “bomb cyclone” – a term given to an explosive storm that intensifies rapidly.

In Colorado, temperatures dipped to a record-breaking low of -9F from 42F on Thursday.

The extreme winter driving conditions shut many roads, including the I-70, in Silverthorne, Colorado.

Snow falls on Broadway, a popular tourist street in Nashville, Tennessee.

The governors of Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia and Oklahoma have also declared states of emergency, while Wisconsin declared an “energy emergency”.