Death Toll Rises to 57 As Freezing Temperature, Heavy Snow Hit US

A “once-in-a-lifetime” blizzard has killed at least 57 people in the United States, including 27 in western New York’s Erie County officials have said.

The number of deaths from the monstrous storm was expected to grow as snow continued to blanket Erie County, leaving roads in many areas impassable, including the majority of Buffalo, County Executive Mark Poloncarz said at a news conference.

“We can see sort of the light at the end of the tunnel, but this is not the end yet,” Poloncarz said. “We are not there.”

Snow was expected to fall in Erie County into Tuesday afternoon. Nationwide, temperatures plummeted, and huge snow drifts have snarled travel and trapped people inside their homes, according to NBC.

Stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the Mexican border, the storm had killed at least 57 people as of Monday morning, according to an NBC News tally.

The deaths were recorded in 12 states: Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

The medical examiner’s office in Erie County determined the 27 deaths there to be directly related to the blizzard, Poloncarz said. He said many died from heart problems while shoveling or blowing snow. Others were found dead in their cars. At least one person in Niagara County died from carbon monoxide poisoning, he said. At least 18 people died in Buffalo, Mayor Byron Brown said Monday afternoon.

Some of those deaths were not included in Erie County’s official tally, Poloncarz said, adding that the county was working to confirm them.

The ferocity of the storm was unlike that of any the region has seen, Poloncarz said. The snow fell “with a vengeance,” he said.

“It’s a generational storm,” he said, and the county has yet to begin assessing the “full toll.”

On Monday morning, a “band of heavy lake effect snow” in the Buffalo area was producing 2 to 3 inches of hourly snowfall, with accumulations reaching 6 to 12 inches and as much as 1 to 2 feet in Jefferson and northern Lewis counties, the National Weather Service said in its 6:43 a.m. bulletin.

The “lake effect” occurs when cold air passes over the unfrozen and warmer lake water, transferring moisture and warmth to the lower parts of the atmosphere. The air then rises to form clouds, resulting in intense snow.

“We know that the storm is coming back,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said, calling the blizzard “one for the ages.”

President Joe Biden on Monday approved an emergency declaration for New York, which authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts in the affected area.

Earlier, the White House had said that Biden called Hochul “to offer the full force of the federal government in support of the people of New York as the state grapples with the impacts of a historic winter storm.”

“This was two days of terrible conditions, but the ferocity of the storm was worse than the blizzard of ’77,” Poloncarz said.

The 1977 storm was called the “Blizzard That Buried Buffalo.” Twenty-nine people died, most of them trapped in their vehicles, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center.