U.S. - ‘Extreme’ Snowstorm Pummels Western New York

By MARC SANTORA

A powerful snowstorm swept across Western New York overnight, creating snow drifts as high as houses, trapping people in their homes and forcing hundreds of motorists to abandon their cars on roadways that were quickly buried in the blizzard-like conditions.

As much of the nation was plunged into a deep freeze, the sudden rush of cold air from the north set the perfect conditions for the moisture coming off the Great Lakes to create sprawling snow bands, the most ferocious of which settled over the towns and communities just south of Buffalo on Tuesday.

At least four people in that region died as a result of the weather, according to The Associated Press. Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency and deployed the National Guard to help find and rescue anyone stranded in the storm.

The heavy snowfall and local travel bans forced Amtrak to suspend service in the region until at least Wednesday afternoon.

As of late Tuesday night, more than five feet had fallen in towns like Lancaster and Gardenville and, since snow kept falling overnight, it was likely that there could be more than six feet of snow in some places.

“This is a very extreme event,” said Shawn Smith, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Buffalo. “It basically crippled all the towns south of Buffalo.”

But unlike a typical winter storm, the snow caused by the “lake effect” was not felt equally across the region. The divide was so stark that someone on a tall building in downtown Buffalo had clear skies overheard but could see a menacing gray wall of moisture and snow being swept up off the lake and driven south.

On Wednesday, there was only a dusting of snow in the city.

But a few miles away, in the town of Evans, they were comparing the storm to the infamous Blizzard of ’77, one of the deadliest snowfalls ever recorded in the region.

Keith Dash, the town supervisor, said it began snowing around 10 p.m. Monday. By 5:30 a.m., it was clear that school needed to be canceled.

“We are at anywhere from 30 to 45 inches, depending on what side of town you’re in,” Mr. Dash said Tuesday night, as the snow continued to pile up. “Plus, there’s been blowing and drifting all day long.”

He said the roads were a major concern.

“We have a lot of stuck vehicles,” he said. “We have over 100 people who are still stuck. I have never, ever seen this much snow at one time.”

Nicole Tubiolo, 35, a web project manager at First Niagara Bank who lives in a condominium in Amherst, said she had not had much snow.

But she said that her mother, in nearby Lancaster, had never seen the snow come so fast and was stuck in her home.

“She said, ‘There’s no way I’m getting out in this,'  ” Ms. Tubiolo said.

The snow forced the closing of a 132-mile stretch of the New York State Thruway on Tuesday but highway officials said that much of the road had been reopened on Wednesday, even as they worked to remove cars abandoned on the side of the road.

Residents are expected to get a brief respite from the snow on Wednesday but the forecast calls for another 12 to 24 inches of snow to fall on Thursday.

As residents upstate started to dig out, the cold temperatures across the country were causing people to hunker down.

In New York City, record low temperatures were recorded at the area airports and it was not expected to warm up until the weekend.