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It's just a news article in a news subreddit. What are you on about?

Oh wow, I even replied to the wrong post. Ignore me. Lol.

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I don't know how anyone does that, yet somehow I've done it too.

Where is FEMA, where is the so called Red Cross or Salvation Army? They are all fake and do nothing.

It's weired that this specific storm was so deadly while the city itself is used to huge snow storms.

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It was the wind that did us in. It was insane. Basically hurricane winds AND snow.

4 ft is a LOT of snow.

I lived in Buffalo. It was 20+ years ago, but I don't think there have been big improvements in snow removal. Snow falls of 1 foot of snow or more slowed the city down. If it happened slow enough most things wouldn't close or the they would close early and/or open late, but not for the a whole day. Schools were the exception and they would close for a day or two.

I lived there for 2 snowfalls of about 3 ft. Schools closed for a week, the University closed for a couple of days. Everything closed for a day. Specific supermarkets and other essential places were the only things open on day 2.

Now you are thinking 4ft is not that much more than 3, but it is. You start running out of places to put the snow. You have issues where you have to plow to the essential workers homes to get people to do the rest.

Other confounding factors can be:

• How much snow did they have before? This can effect what they can do with the snow, how much deicing is available?

• It's the holidays. Who is out of town and can't get back to help? Who can they not even get a hold of and so can't plan. How many non locals are around using resources and doing stupid things like driving in a blizzard (yeah local do that too).

• Lake effect snow is very wet and heavy. It's harder to get move/carry than the powdery stuff. It also becomes ice very easily making it even harder to deal with and roads even worse.

• Continued bad weather (i don't know if this is the case). Everything is harder and more dangerous in cold weather. Ditto for wind.

There could be other problems like Buffalo's budget didn't put enough in maintenance and essential equipment broke. We'll probably find out more in a few weeks or months.

Seriously though, 4 ft is an insane amount of snow.

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The emergency declaration was approved 14 hours ago by the president. The question you should be asking is why did NY Gov wait so long to request it. Teleportation has yet to be invented, so moving supplies and relief into an area that is inundated with snow during a time of national holiday travel chaos takes time.

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The mayor was on TV yesterday and said the city was basically out of money. The mass shooting earlier this year required a huge amount of resources to manage all of the security, emergency services, legal costs, and so on. Not to mention the loss of business and tourism revenue. Now with the historic storm they just simply don't have enough resources to manage.

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People always think people that prepare are crazy, till something like this happens and they don't even need to leave the house.

And this is why you always have a few days worth of non perishable food in the back of the cupboard

Yea, as a Canadian not far from Buffalo, I was quite surprised (and saddened/horrified) that people died in their cars, freezing to death. That means the storm was so bad that they probably lost cell phone signal or had signal but no one could come help.

First time in the history of the 150 year buffalo fire department that they couldn't respond to emergency calls. For 48 hours straight the roads were impassable for anyone, that includes snow plows, ambulances etc. It was a nightmare, I'm glad I survived.

Buffalo has some of the lowest property taxes for any major city in the country. The mayor won't raise taxes because the real estate developers are in his pocket. So the city crumbles.

Everyone had a signal . Emergency personell couldn't get to anyone for 48 hrs.

The streets have four feet of snow on them and there were abandoned cars all over as well as zero visibility. They had cell service but no one could get to them. 911 was telling people to pray because there was nothing anyone could do for them.

Once plows can’t operate…things get fucked in a hurry.

We're not preppers, but we have enough food and water for a couple weeks. It's just the way we shop, buying stuff on sale and keeping it stocked up.

I never understood how people don't have a few days worth. They seriously don't have peanut butter, jelly, soup, crackers, Ramen etc?

I'm a small-town farm boy so it's just natural for me to keep food and stuff on hand. I also hate running to the store every time I need something.

I don't think my neighbors who hold a few weeks of food in their basements are crazy; I think the neighbors who told me they had a list of other neighbors whose land they planned to annex when it 'hits the fan' are crazy

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Christ. A city that's used to snow and you still close schools because of snow? No wonder a Blizzard kills people. I'm struggling to figure out if Americans are just so fucking dramatic about everything or if this would kill people and require the national guard in Oslo as well where I'm from.

We've had massive amounts of snow with strong winds too but daily life just went on with delays. Main roads are cleared within the hour, you dig out your own car, then you drive to wherever or you walk.

Hearing stories about people freezing to death in their cars in a city is insane. If it's winter you'll be wearing clothes for winter. If your can't drive further you leave your car and go to the nearest house for shelter. Are there just so many people from other places who are not used to cold weather?

Not making fun obviously just curious how this happens and if the weather is so bad my city would face the same consequences or if this is just how it affects American cities.

Oh yeah, I forgot that Buffalo is an old steel town that has had it's best days behind it.

That will never happen in any American city, because we refuse to raise taxes.

Isn't that the truth

My mid-sized truck is a rolling survival tent. I love it. Solar, diesel heat, gas generator, freezer, fridge and a hot shower. It was a COVID hobby and I will use it to camp until I can’t drive anymore. I’m able to pull all that together in my home if I need to.

Rice. Rice rice rice. Buy different sauces for your rice. Find different ways to cook your rice.

Rice is a staple in these times.

You can't plow roads or fix power lines in hurricane force winds. They couldn't 'just go on' like you're used to

Jesus Christ. That's like the robot chicken joke of people getting snowed in for a couple hours and immediately turning to cannibalism

You've got a few psycho neighbors

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You can always plow roads. Power you can luve without for a bit. Ambulances will have escorts to get where they need if visibility is 0.

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I live in WNY. Buffalo and WNY in general do not know how to clean up snow, and it will not change. I don't suggest living here if you are elderly, handicapped, or have some other kind of disability or if you just cannot shovel.

Where I live there's less than a foot of snow, however the issue was the wind. 60mph wind gusts with snow make visibility down to zero and you cannot see. It creates a very dangerous situation with even just a little bit of snow. There are also snow drifts, which make it seem like there is more snow than there is. The snow can blow up against your door and make it impossible to open, even if there isn't very much snow on the ground.

And buy a cheap ass camping gas stove for when the electricity goes out if you have an electric range.

Many people have no choice. People living on minimum wage, for example, who can't afford to miss a single day of work

You should go drive around the east side, then take up shelter in the fruit belt.

I’ll make a deal with ya. We won’t even involve any snow. We can wait til May.

I got a couple of those survival buckets of dehydrated food after lock downs began. Shit stays good (well... edible, in the purest sense of the word) for decades and it just takes up a bit of corner space in the closet. Enough for at least a week for the whole family, probably longer as I don't imagine we'll be super eager to fill up on 2000 calories a day on this crap, just enough to not go hungry. Live on the Gulf so hurricanes definitely put the probability of needing it one day well above zero.

Why would anyone drive around now?

Because there is six brain cells that the whole city shares.

Airlift some MRE’s into Buffalo.

No unfortunately that’s a window into the future. If people are starving all bets are off. Everything humankind has built up is so fragile, it would only take a few weeks of starvation for our society to go completely upside down. Law and order are illusions we provide ourselves to make an irrational world rational. Never lose touch with the animals that reside in us all, be aware.

Fucking bullshit. You can’t clear a road when the wind is blowing that fucking hard. One foot of snow in normal winds can cause drifts of 6-8ft all on their own. Multiply that by 4 and you’ve got a real fucking problem.

It’s like trying to use a bucket to drain a lake.

You clearly have zero idea what you’re on about.

Here major roads will be cleared regularly during the snowstorm even with blowing snow covering up the road. Then all roads are cleared after the wind dies down. Happens regularly in many Norwegian cities and never experienced this level of drama/panic here. If you're in a city and get stuck in your car you leave it and seek shelter. If you're inside you just stay in for the duration of the storm and you'd have bought enough food to last a day or two before because you live in a place where paying attention to the weather is important. If you lose power you put on more clothes and light a fire. It just seems to me bad infrastructure combined with too many people having no clue how to cope with a lot of snow or panicking because of it leads to a worse situation than it should be.

Go drive around the east side in May and try to stop by someone’s house.

Well, I've personnally been in that situation. Being stuck in your car, on the side of the road durring a blizzard is aweful. I tried to wave down police, fire, plow trucks, and nothing. After, the 5th police car came by I finally got help.

You’re making a lot of assumptions that are baseless and rather silly.

People pay attention to the weather but this is was an absolute freak storm that some of the people who died in their cars were not old enough to have ever experienced.

Leaving the car is the last thing you’re told to do here because 9/10 it’s better to stay put. Especially in blizzard conditions, in unfamiliar landscape. Could they have found a house? Maybe. Could they also have died getting turned around and lost in 0 visibility? very likely

You’re discounting that many people were traveling home for the holidays or going home from essential jobs (a nurse) rather than just jumping out to the store for a head of lettuce or whatever.

No amount of snow plowing is going to clear roads during an ongoing blizzard with the snow conditions what they were. Not happening here, not happening anywhere. It’s just physics.

Shouldve stocked up on bread and milk

They can raise taxes.

People who get takeout or fast food a lot don’t. Some people literally just have drinks and maybe a bag of chips and grab pizza or McDonald’s on their way home regularly.

Having a well-stocked kitchen is something you have to learn how to do when you move out for the first time. Some people didn’t have a well stocked kitchen growing up so it doesn’t even occur to them that there are basics they should just have on hand.

Being prepared with a few meals and a kerosene heater isn't crazy. It's prudent.

Digging a bunker in your back yard?

Crazy.

If you can't put away the occasional 50 cent canned goods, you need to reevaluate your life.

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Brown, Poloncarz and Hochul are lying about the death toll.

I got stuck on a summer road, eventually some redneck with a big ass truck saw me and pulled me out. Thought I was gonna die. I never met him before and not even a week later he was at a party I was at and telling everyone he saved my life. He probably did but shit was embarrassing haha.