Volunteers help dig out Buffalo families after historic storm
After over 4 feet of snow buried the city, a Buffalo-based organization assembled the Snowplow Mafia to help residents trapped in their homes.
People hit the streets of Buffalo, New York, on Dec. 29 to help shovel sidewalks and driveways after the Christmas weekend blizzard.
After Buffalo was pummeled by a record-setting blizzard late last week, an organization in the city is doing all it can to ensure everyone is able to dig out efficiently and safely.
The organization, Buffalo Gives, has worked for days to help those in need around the city in the aftermath of the storm. When residents in Buffalo's East Side remained trapped several days after the worst of the blizzard impacted the area on Christmas Eve, the organization posted a call for help on social media to shovel out those still trapped.
"We know that there are elderly family members and children in need of immediate medical attention. If you have a plow, a snowblower, a shovel or a heart for our city, meet us," the organization posted on Facebook on Wednesday night.
The call for help was answered as total strangers came together to hit the streets with snow shovels and dig out.
Volunteers help Buffalo's east side dig out following a historic blizzard.
"The Bills' Mafia has rallied today to come and dig out the east side of Buffalo because we can't sit by and do nothing," Buffalo Gives founder Lydia Dominick told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Waddell, referencing the nickname for Buffalo Bills fans.
The mission became known as "Snowplow Mafia" and lasted throughout the day on Wednesday, Dec. 28 and Thursday, Dec. 29. Dominick told Waddell that some of the residents who were snowed in included elderly people that needed medical attention and babies with families unable to get vehicles out of their driveways.
"What we're hoping to accomplish is to clear driveways and sidewalks and allow these families that have been stuck in their homes since Christmas Eve to get out before the weekend and get the things that they need so badly," Dominick explained.
The extreme blizzard conditions brought on by the storm made some residents compare it to the famous 1977 blizzard, including volunteer John Slowik of Tonawanda, New York, who said this year's storm may have been worse.
"In general, for everybody, this is much worse. I mean, the death toll was more than it was [in] '77 [from] people losing power for a few days," Slowik told Waddell.
Volunteers help Buffalo's East Side dig out following a historic blizzard.
This event will go down as one of Buffalo’s deadliest winter storms, surpassing the historic Blizzard of 1977, which was blamed for killing as many as 29 people.
On Tuesday, Buffalo Gives announced they would be joining the Thurman Thomas Family Foundation to help raise funds to assist the Buffalo community in recovering from the devastation of the blizzard. The Thurman Thomas Family Foundation focuses on making a difference through programs that support education, health and wellness in the city, according to their website.
The mission for Buffalo Gives started when Dominick's neighbors dug her family out, and she wanted to give back.
"The way that feels when you know how much work is in front of you, whether you are physically capable of it or not, your community coming together and rallying to help your family. It feels so personal," said Dominick.
"This community is coming together in a way that I'm actually not very surprised about because this is what Buffalo does...We also really know how to love our neighbors and to do that well."
Snow-covered cars line a side street a few days after a winter storm rolled through Western New York Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)
The blizzard event was part of a massive winter storm that descended across more than half of the United States to close out the year. The storm unleashed the historic lake-effect snow that produced hurricane-force winds and whiteout conditions in the Buffalo area. About 60% of the country was under some form of winter weather advisory or warning, and new temperature records were recorded in multiple cities.
Of the at least 64 confirmed deaths from the winter storm, at least 39 are from Erie County, New York, which includes the greater Buffalo area. At least 17 of those deaths included victims who were found outside. Other causes of death included no heat, being stuck in vehicles, shoveling or snow-blowing cardiac events and delayed EMS services.
One of the victims included a Buffalo woman that went out on Christmas Eve, telling her daughter she'd be right back. Her body was later found a few hundred feet from her home.
On Wednesday, authorities were going door-to-door to conduct wellness checks, and emergency responders were tasked with checking locations that were unreachable during the storm.
National Guard members check on residents Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022, in Buffalo, N.Y., following a winter storm. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)
"Thank you to our incredible first responders, DPW crews, National Guard & everyone who answered the call to help our community — often at grave personal risk," Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz posted on Twitter on Thursday.
The storm began as a rain event for Buffalo, with the city receiving 1.98 inches last Friday, breaking the prior daily record of 1.73 inches that had stood since 1878. As Arctic air rushed in, rain changed to heavy snow last Friday morning. The Buffalo airport recorded zero-mile visibility for nearly 16 hours from midday last Friday to the early-morning hours of Christmas Eve.
"One of the most extensive, most intense blizzards I've ever covered," Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer said amid the snowstorm.
Over 4 feet of snow blanketed parts of Erie County into Tuesday. The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Buffalo measured 51.9 inches of snow through Tuesday at the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport.
Buffalo officially surpassed 100 inches for the season on Monday. For comparison, Buffalo only had 10.7 inches of snow last winter by the end of December. This is more than the city's seasonal average for the entire winter, which is 95.4 inches, according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Ryan Adamson.
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