five people are dead and thousands are without electricity after Upstate NY’s historic snowstorm
Almost half of the country received snow on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. With the snow, came record low temperatures and snowstorms dropping several feet of snow in some places. Buffalo, NY being one of the hardest hit locations, got buried in 6 feet of snow, and that number continues to grow as the winter storm proceeds. Some places in the region may see 7 1/2 more feet after the next round of snowstorms hit.
New York State Electric and Gas Corporation reported about 450 of their customers were out of power, a number that’s relatively low given the amount of snow that dropped in such a short period of time. Mercy Hospital in Buffalo, is short staffed because the employees couldn’t travel on the roads to get to work. Nurse Shanel Orsi, had to get a lift to work from a snowmobile because the roads weren’t clear, she told The Buffalo News “Many of our nurses couldn’t get in to work today.”
Five people have died as a cause of the snowstorm, three people died from cardiac problems while shoveling snow. One person died from a car accident, and a 46 year old man’s body was found in a car, that was buried 12 to 15 feet under the snow in Alden, NY.
The extreme weather is caused by Arctic air that’s dispensing over the Great Lakes, which are moderately warm, thus producing extreme snows. Tuesday morning’s temperature was the coldest November it has been since 1976.
Tuesday morning, every state had temperatures below freezing. The temperature in Florida’s Panhandle was in the upper 20’s with freeze warnings in effect. Lancaster, NY is getting snow at 4 to 5 inches an hour, they have already received 40 inches and it continues to snow.
-Sara D.(@evolaras4real)
