US weather winter storm: Buffalo New York braces to find more dead as snow melts

Worker Garrett LaCross ploughs snow off Interstate 33 in Buffalo, New York as the clean-up begins after the monster blizzard that hit four Western New York counties, but officials fear they may find more bodies. Photo / via AP

The New York city of Buffalo is set to emerge from a deep freeze today, bringing some relief but also the tragic possibility of finding more victims amid melting snow from the area’s deadliest storm in decades.

Officials said more than 30 people so far have been reported to have died because of the blizzard that raged over the weekend in western New York, an area prone to powerful winter storms.

The historic blizzard of 1977 killed as many as 29.

Antwaine Parker told The Buffalo News that his mother, Carolyn Eubanks, perished at the home of strangers who took her in after her family tried to get help for the ailing woman.

Eubanks, 63, relied on an oxygen machine. With the power out in her home and emergency responders unable to answer calls amid the blizzard, Parker said, he and his stepbrother drove through the snow to rescue her themselves. She collapsed as they led her to a car, he said.

“She’s like, ‘I can’t go no further.’ I’m begging her, ‘Mom, just stand up.’ She fell in my arms and never spoke another word,” Parker told the newspaper.

The stepbrothers knocked on nearby doors, seeking someone who would help. They found David Purdy, who opened his door to two desperate strangers and helped them carry Eubanks inside and try in vain to revive her.

After they realised she was gone, Purdy and his fiancee sheltered her body until first responders showed up with ploughs the next day.

“I done it as respectful as I could,” Purdy told The Buffalo News. His own mother is roughly the same age as Eubanks was and also uses an oxygen machine, he said, and “if she needed help, I’d hope there would be people out there to help her, as well”.

Temperatures were expected to rise to mid-40s (7C) today and the low 50s (10C) by the weekend, the National Weather Service said.

With enough snow still on the ground that driving was still banned in New York’s second-most-populous city, officials worked to clear storm drains and watched a forecast that calls for some rain later in the week.

Officials in Erie County, which encompasses Buffalo, said they were concerned about the possibility of flooding.

The weather service said “any flooding is expected to be of the minor or nuisance variety”.

While suburban roads and most major highways in the area have reopened, there was still a driving ban in Buffalo, and state and military police were assigned to enforce it.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, a Democrat, said “too many people are ignoring the ban”.

A Facebook group originally created in 2014, when Buffalo was buried under deep snow, has become a lifeline, seeking to help thousands seeking food, medicine, shelter and rescue in the latest storm. Currently managed by five women, the group has swelled to at least 68,000 people.

“We are seeing a lot of desperation,” said Erin Aquilinia, founder of the original group, in an online interview. - AP