More than two dozen people have been killed and thousands lost power after a blizzard hit western New York state over Christmas, what local officials described as the deadliest blizzard in the region in recent years. many decade.
States across the US were hit by the storm, with the hardest hit area being New York’s Erie County, which includes Buffalo, the state’s second-largest city.
Speaking Monday, Governor of New York Kathy Hochulwho was born in Buffalo, said visiting the area was like “going to a war zone”.
The blizzard, which meteorologists describe as a “bomb storm”, denotes a rapidly strengthening storm that has sent temperatures across the US plummeting to minus 40 degrees Celsius over the Christmas period. .
The US National Weather Service warned last week that more than 200 million people, or about 60% of the US population, are under some form of winter weather warning or advisory.
Erie County CEO Mark Poloncarz said at a news conference Monday that the death toll rose overnight from 13 to 25. The total death toll from the storm in western New York is at least 27, with 48 deaths nationwide. Related press report.
Poloncarz said some of the deaths were due to cardiovascular events related to snow shoveling and blowing, adding that the storm is now potentially more deadly than the New York blizzard. in 1977.
“The blizzard of ’77 lasted longer, three days in poor conditions. These have been two days of bad conditions, but the intensity of the storm was worse than the Blizzard of ’77 and now it looks like we’ve had more deaths across the county,” Poloncarz said.
He added that as of Tuesday, more than 13,000 people had been restored to power but more than 12,000 people remained without power.
Erie County Sheriff William Cooley described the blizzard as “a storm of the generation”.
Responding to reports of looting in the area, Cooley said it was “unfortunate that there is some opportunistic crime in our society,” adding that the Buffalo police department had carried out a crime. arrest.
