(Reuters) – A deadly blizzard hit the city of Buffalo, New York, on Christmas Day, trapping people in their cars, causing power outages and adding to the death toll from a severe winter storm that swept across the country. U.S.
Twenty-eight people have died so far in weather-related incidents across the country, according to NBC News. CNN reported a total of 26 deaths.
Mark Poloncarz of the Erie County Administration said the storm’s death toll increased from three to seven overnight in the Buffalo region of New York’s far west, where snow on Sunday brought the total buildup to nearly 1. .2 meters tall.
Some of the four dead reported on Sunday morning were found in cars and some in snowbanks, Poloncarz said, adding that the number could still rise.
“This is not the Christmas any of us expected, but try to have as happy a Christmas as possible today,” Poloncarz said on Twitter on Sunday. “My deepest condolences to the families who have lost loved ones.
Christina Klaffka, 39, watched roof tiles explode on her neighbor’s house and heard her windows rattle in “hurricane-like winds”. It lost power along with the entire neighborhood on Saturday night and was still without electricity this Sunday morning.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters on Sunday that she had reached out to the White House and that the Biden administration will support the state’s request for a federal disaster declaration.
“This will go down in history as Buffalo’s most devastating storm…and we’re still in the middle of it,” said Hochul.
The blizzard was the result of a powerful winter storm that has sent freezing temperatures from the Northern Great Plains to the US-Mexico border since the middle of last week. The storm was moving eastward on Sunday after knocking out power to millions of people late last week and causing flight cancellations during the busy holiday period.
More than 1,600 U.S. flights were canceled as of midday Sunday, according to flight tracker FlightAware, as the weather further hampered holiday travel.
Kentucky officials confirmed there were at least three storm-related deaths in that state, while at least four people died and several were injured in automobile accidents in Ohio, where a 50-vehicle pileup closed the Ohio Turnpike in both directions during a blizzard near from Toledo on Friday.
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter, Lucia Mutikani, Rick Cowan and Ahmed Aboulenein)
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