re: People are freezing to death in their cars in Buffalo

I doubt Buffalo sees 6 feet of heavy, wet snow very often. Sounds Ike at least some of the deaths are unfortunate situations, like the guy dying of carbon monoxide poisoning because a snow drift was blocking his furnace exhaust.

quote:

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Surprising a city like Buffalo wasn’t better equipped to deal with blizzard conditions, but it was a freak storm.

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That wasn't just a blizzard.

That was a Snowcane, essentially. Hours and hours of 50+mph winds with gusts over 70mph. During that you can't do anything to alleviate the impacts of the snow. Plows cant run, electrical crews cant work, EMS cant efficiently respond to calls, hell fire departments had crews abandoning trucks and seeking shelter anywhere they could find it. It is basically the same as when the authorities send out the message once hurricane winds start that says, "All emergency response will be suspended until it is safe.....", they simply couldn't do anything. After the actual blizzard, they got another heavy dose of lake effect snow just for good measure.

Now, throw in the fact that there was a travel ban. No one was supposed to be on the roads at all. People ignored it, though. Many of those people wound up stranded. Hundreds of rescues had to be carried out. What that left behind was a whole bunch of stranded vehicles blocking roads and hampering emergency response and response to clear roads.

This wasn't just some snow falling. This wasn't even what they had a while back with the lake effect snow that dumped six feet on them.