A few images from Buffalo, New York...

[EarthFirst]

It’s an absolute natural disaster zone in Buffalo, New York.

The tragedy of loss of life from exposure in abandoned vehicles is only likely to increase in the coming days.

Many, many still stranded with rapidly (or currently) depleted resources.

A mere 70 miles east; we are looking at barren lawn.

We’ve offered our equipment; loaders and skid steers with manpower to Erie County Emergency Management; on standby until it’s been deemed safe to enter the area. Not sure if we will be called up or not…

Keep WNY in your thoughts today; it’s going to be a massive recovery effort in Buffalo over the coming days.

[fightforfreedom]

1. My wife's sister and her husband got stranded in their car in Buffalo because a accident blocked the

road. They ended up taking shelter in a fire house. I have been calling them dummies for attempting to drive to Buffalo. They were going to their daughters house for Christmas. By the way, they are Trump voters. Their daughters are not.

[Sogo]

10. Is this them?

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/25/us/buffalo-blizzard-stranded-family-firehouse/index.html

[dchill]

19. I see what you did there.

[Sogo]

21. What?

Please inform me what I've done....

[Throck]

2. Plenty of warning was given, days in advance.

Yet people still waited to the last minute and went out anyway. Weather forecasting is better today than it ever was. Erie, PA always gets pounded like this, annual winter problem yet Buffalo people ignore the warnings. I can see Texas getting an ugly surprise but not Buffalo. I wonder how many idiots were going out for non-essentials?

[leftstreet]

11. Maybe someone had to get to a doctor? A vet? A dying friend?

Jesus

[Throck]

43. Lots of abandoned vehicles on the roads by the malls.

Tons of people with no good reason. My daughter was all stocked up Tuesday before the event. The idiots take away from services from people who actually need them. Totally selfish.

[ShazzieB]

48. Please read reply #45.

[wnylib]

14. How easy it is to judge when you are not there and

do not have the details. It is the worst blizzard in Buffalo history and that says a lot for Buffalo.

Yes, there was advance warning. I know what the warnings were because I am close enough to Buffalo to get the same warnings and to follow Buffalo TV and radio, but fortunately am far enough inland go have missed the worst of the storm.

The advance warnings were for 9 am Friday morning to 1 am Monday morning. The prediction initially was for a winter storm warning, not a blizzard. It was expected to start with high winds and rain, then a sudden tempersture drop and snow. But the temp drop and snow began BEFORE the predicted time. The warning changed from a winter storm to a blizzard only the night before it hit. With people busy with holiday preparations, some missed the warning change to a blizzard. Others, like me, thought they might have time to do last minute shopping (as happens on holidays) in the morning while it was just raining.

I had to refill a prescription the night before the storm. The line at the pharmacy was so long that I almost left, thinking that I could go back early in the morning before the storm hit. But, I stayed to get the med (which I have to have daily) in order to save myself an extra trip the next day.

I am glad that I did not wait until the next morning. By 9 am, when I expected to see rain and some wind per the warnings, the wind was there, but so were blowing snow and cold temperatures. It was still possible to go out, but looked miserable enough that I would not have wanted to. The warnings had said that my area of western NY would not get the snow and wind until 1 pm. I do not blame the US Weather Service. Conditions can change quickly.

People in Buffalo who thought the same as I had thought about being able to go out early in the day got caught in a "winter snow storm" that turned into the worst blizzard that this area has seen.

Then there were the people not from this area, not familiar with how bad it gets, who were on their way to visit relatives or to go to Niagara Falls right next to Buffalo. There were responders and medical people trying to get to work where they knew they would be needed in a storm.

It's just not so simple as judgmentally saying that they were dumb, not prepared, or got what was coming to them.

[appalachiablue]

16. ++ Thanks for sharing the reality, glad things went OK for you during the blizzard. A real mess.

[Hekate]

23. Real life as opposed to humanity being in total control of the outcome

[Igel]

32. That requires a bit of humility.

Few of my high-schoolers in the last 5 years or so thought the very idea stupid.

Very Nietsche.

[ShazzieB]

45. It's called the Just-World fallacy.

Aka the Just-World hypothesis.

The Just-World Fallacy

The Misconception: People who are losing at the game of life must have done something to deserve it.It is common in fiction for the bad guys to lose and the good guys to win. It is how you would like to see the world – just and fair. In psychology the tendency to believe this is how the real world actually works is a known cognitive bias called the Just-World Fallacy.

The Truth: The beneficiaries of good fortune often do nothing to earn it, and bad people often get away with their actions without consequences.

*snip*

More specifically, this bias is a lens through which you tend to see the world, and seeing things in this way often leads to a predictable reaction to horrible misfortune like homelessness or drug addiction – believing the people stuck in horrible situations must have done something to deserve it.

https://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/07/the-just-world-fallacy/

[wnylib]

52. I think part of the deserving good guy and

undeserving bad guy attitude is also based in fear of one's own vulnerability in some cases. Some of the worst critics of rape victims are other women. If they can believe that a woman somehow caused her rape by her behavior, then they can reassure themselves that it would never happen to them because they would never "do the wrong things" that cause it. It is a belief in being always able to control their own lives and any thing that happens.

For some people, the good vs. bad person outcomes in other cases are a way of assuring themselves that they are smarter, more careful, or better than people who experience bad things. Again, a way of feeling in control and able to ward off bad things happening to them.

[ShazzieB]

54. Absolutely true!

It's very comforting to belive that no harm will ever come to us as long as we do everything "right." The actual truth is much scarier.

Some people don't want to accept the fact that, although making the "right" choices can mitigate our risks in many areas, there are absolutely no guarantees in life.

[Ferrets are Cool]

68. Great post

[W_HAMILTON]

22. Have some compassion.

Last edited Tue Dec 27, 2022, 06:52 PM - Edit history (1)

What about the elderly that are not easily able to just "up and go?" Or the disabled? Or the poor? Or the homeless? Or any of a number of people who don't have the capability or means to just pick up and leave on a moment's notice?

[wnylib]

25. +1000

[DashOneBravo]

24. You never know what's going on

One of my friends had to leave his house. Go get his child who foolishly drove in an ice storm .

[Ms. Toad]

40. Yet a short drive to the West

(Which received the same dire warnings) looked more like the meme going around with the tape measure stuck in a few flakes of snow: "I survived the blizzard of 2022"

I do know that Buffalo is different, and while weather forecasting is better, the broad warnings wer extremely poorly targeted. In our area it created last-minute shelf-clearing panic in places which, frankly, had storms less severe than the average storm I grew up with in Nebraska.

[Biophilic]

3. Holy smokes. What a mess. Nt

[tavernier]

4. Twice in my life I've seen the same scenario

in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The first thing we all did was check on neighbors and friends. Many of us had snowmobiles and they were lifesavers. Oddly within hours several restaurants opened by owners who took in hungry ppl. One was Red Lobster. Strangest sight, seeing people in the middle of a crippling blizzard eating at tables at the Red Lobster.

[Throck]

5. Daughter says Buffalo is still shut down. No grocery stores open and no restaurants.

Emergency services can't get out to help people. Snow and visibility so bad that snowmobiles are useless. Bad blizzard.

[Igel]

33. Home from college one weekend, there was a storm like this.

Went to bed Saturday night, expecting flurries, maybe 1/2 inch.

Woke up next day, by 11 am over 36" had fell and it was drifting. My car was a white mound. Roads were impassable, even by foot.

Look at the pictures. It'll be a while. Clear some snow, tow a car. Clear more snow, tow another car. Find a body, there's a coroner needed, move one street over.

They cleared the interstates first back then, and in my little neck of the coast (literally, on a peninsula) people didn't go out that night. The plows cleared the roads and just had to swerve to avoid a car or two. In the city it was a nightmare. I was back at school and still watching scenes on the news of them clearing Baltimore and Wilmington streets. Warmed up, fortunately, so some side streets were only "cleared" when the idjits reclaimed them.

It's when the cruel bastard in me says that the snow plows should just be big, burly, and shove all the cars down the road into a pile, tamping them down for compactness, for later scrapyard pick up and recycling.

[Lucinda]

6. Wow!

❤️ ✿❧🌿❧✿ ❤️

[fightforfreedom]

7. I remember the blizzard of 1993. It looked just like those pictures

I attempted to shovel out my car. I crawled through the snow to my car. I could only see the roof. I looked and then I crawled back to my house and fucking stayed there. It was hopeless. Lol. Later I found someone with a very large snow blower and he cleared out my car.

[Sogo]

8. Hard to believe that people of that region endure these conditions,

or near these conditions, year after year....

It's almost like living in a hurricane zone or tornado zone; just unbelievable powers of nature!

[Hekate]

17. There is no place on Earth "safe" from the powers of Nature. As a species we used to know this...

[Sogo]

20. It's true, but some places more predictable than others.

Like, why build a home on the islands off the Texas Gulf Coast? Just asking for trouble, IMHO....

[wnylib]

29. This area is used to heavy snowfalls

and can endure them pretty well. But, despite the reputation here for heavy, lake effect snow, actual full blown blizzards are not that common here. A heavy snowfall can happen in quite calm weather. If people do get stuck in a drift from lake effect snow, it's possible to pull them out in a timely manner. The danger from those kinds of winter snow storms is poor visibility and car accidents on the road.

A blizzard is very different from a winter storm that drops a lot of snow, which is what we usually get. Temperatures below zero are not every year events here, but they do happen, usually not much lower than -15 and usually not with high winds.

This blizzard is what is now called a "cyclone bomb" by meteorologists. A sharp drop in barometric pressure occurs in the midst of a snowstorm, creating a monster blizzard. Not a common event. The last monster blizzard created by a cyclone bomb that I lived through was in 1978 and that was in Cleveland, not Buffalo.

This blizzard combined all the worst possible elements together for 3 days, nonstop. Rain freezing to ice, winds of 70 mph and gusts up to 100+ mph, 4 feet of snowfall, temperatures below zero with wind chills of -30 to -40 degrees. Heavy snow equipment, which Buffalo has in abundance, got stuck and its operators had to be rescued by snowmobiles. Even National Guard equipment got stuck. An 18 foot snow drift knocked a power station out of commission.

These are not every year or even every decade events in this region. Not the kind of regular weather that would keep people from living here.

That could change due to climate change causing more of these types of weather disasters. But before climate change, there were already existing cities in this region for a couple centuries.

[Sogo]

37. Thanks for clarifying how bad it got.

I'm no stranger to blizzards. We get them in the Midwest not unfrequently. But I don't recall any time of getting 100+mph gusts!

We do get sub-zero windchills. Last year, it went on for about 10 days, with windchills as low as -50. I had to close off bedrooms and sleep in my living room, because my windows couldn't hold out the fierce wind! The funny thing (not funny) is that they are new windows in a new construction building....In the last few days, we had -38 windchills for about a day and a half, and the windows were fine. Guess they reached their limit last year.

Later this week, we're supposed to be in the 50s (ABOVE zero!)

[wnylib]

39. Those -50 wind chills as a regular feature

of winter would make me move away or avoid living there.

It's all in what you are used to as normal. If I'd grown up there, I probably would have learned to tolerate it. But temps like that here would cause schools to close and be a major event because people here would not know how to survive it.

This blizzard was so terrible because of the combination of unusual cold temps for here with destructive winds that knocked out power (and therefore heat) and toppled trees, power lines, and damaged buildings, plus dumping 4 feet of snow in 3 days that caused gigantic drifts that were impassable and could not be removed or plowed through.

And all of this happened in a densely populated urban area, not in open countryside.

[Sogo]

47. -50 windchill is not a regular feature here; more like -20 windchill and only for a few days

each winter. -50 is probably a regular feature in North Dakota and northern Minnesota....

-50 us about as unusual for us as the blizzard you just had is for you.

[wnylib]

50. Thanks. I didn't know that.

I know that it gets bad in MN and ND. Thought it was the same for you.

[LeftInTX]

42. I hear ya. This happens, but not all at once!

In WI. It gets below zero alot, but it rarely snows when it's below zero. (Or at least heavy snow)
We would get snow, then the next day the temps would make their sub-zero descent. By then, roads would be plowed and salted. There were a few times in sub-zero where my car was snowed under, but the streets were plowed.

Then, throw Christmas in the mix. Heck, we got down to 15 degrees Fri morning here in San Antonio, but it kinda threw everything for a loop. Another time of winter, would have been a "stay in", "take it easy" time, but I still had to prep for Cristmas in a very drafty house.

[Cetacea]

62. Cyclone Bombs are no longer rare

There have been a few just in the last several years, mostly during spring and summer.

It's climate change.

[wnylib]

65. I experienced a bomb cyclone, or bombogenesis, blizzard

in 1978 in Cleveland, in January. According to two sites that I looked up, they occur more often in winter than summer, usually between December and March.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/what-is-bomb-cyclone-winter-storm-weather-explained/

Fortunately, I am just far enough from Buffalo to have missed the this bomb cyclone blizzard. Where I am, we only had winds around 40 mph, with gusts to 60 mph, wind chills around -20, and about 18 inches of snow. It was of shorter duration here, too.

Yes, bomb cyclones are more frequent now due to climate change. But I was responding to a poster who said that people should reconsider living in areas of regular bad weather because Buffalo is often in the news for heavy lake effect snowfalls. I was just pointing out that there is a big difference between lake effect snowfalls and blizzards, especially a bomb cyclone blizzard.

Heavy amounts of lake effect snow are common around here. But, although they make the news, the effects are limited and we can cope with them. During lake effect snow dumps, people who need to get out for medical care or are short on food, can be reached by snowmobiles or paths can be created to get them out. Power outages are also more limited to a few places where a tree branch breaks from the snow weight and knocks down a power line. They can be repaired fairly soon. The snow weight can collapse a roof on a building but people know this and can clear their roofs. In other words, those snowfalls call for extra measures, but we can handle them.

A blizzard, though, does much more damage due to winds, extreme drifting, and seriously low wind chills. Reaching people is impossible during a blizzard and so are repairs to power lines. Although they occasionally happen here, blizzards are not regular features of this area. So no need to avoid living here due to concern about them. They are much more common in the Midwest and West. A bomb cyclone blizzard is definitely not a regular feature here. They can and do occur in other regions and are not specific to this one.

[Cetacea]

69. Thanks

I'm dreading the coming year. We are expecting an El Niño and will lose the cooling effects of La Niña.

[lindysalsagal]

9. I've got family there. Snow above windowsills

And halfway up doors.
WAPO video: https://d21rhj7n383afu.cloudfront.net/washpost-production/Reuters/20221226/63a97588849cec6b902b3d82/63a9a80657a591418865d54b/file_1280x720-2000-v3_1.mp4

[question everything]

12. Just saw a report on CNN where some roads are cleared and people drive

only to get stuck several blocks down.

Whenever possible, people should stay home.

Hard to even think about emergencies.

[niyad]

13. Ther are no words.

[TeamProg]

15. Yikes! nt

[KY_EnviroGuy]

18. Wind so bad there's hardly any snow on the roofs of homes and cars.....

yet there are 10-ft and higher drifts on the ground.

One might assume the highest priority will be clearing major roads so emergency vehicles can get through or at least in the vicinity of a fire or health emergency.

A lot of folks seemed to have lost much of their common sense and caution during the pandemic. These events are refresher courses on reality.

Thanks for posting these photos, EarthFirst.........

With tots and pears and donations to American Red Cross......

[JuJuChen]

26. meanwhile it's 81 in San Diego

[dflprincess]

27. Yikes

I lived near Buffalo (Hamburg to be exact) when I was a kid. Glad we moved back to Minneapolis.

A friend (now in Florida) who lived on my street back then posted some shots from Hamburg emergency services. Buildings along the lake shore just coated in ice. I can't imagine how people are coping.

[bullwinkle428]

28. My 85-year-old mom lives in a suburban area that was hard hit by

the snowfall and wind. I've been speaking with her a couple of times a day, and she's extremely thankful her power never went out, and she has everything she needs at home.

I've been stressing out about the new furnace she recently had installed, as there are exhaust pipes to the outdoors that I'm hoping are not blocked by the snow. Tons of pine trees in her neighborhood, which help to filter the wind a little bit, so the gusts don't hit the condos quite as strongly.

[nightwing1240]

30. Oh man that is bad

Hoping you and your loved ones are fine and will stay safe

[packman]

31. My college dorm mate was from Buffalo

And he laffed at the snow we had at our college when we got snowed in. Told me that the summer in Buffalo was from August 13 thru August 30,

[bucolic_frolic]

34. Looks like the roofs made it through- just steep enough to not hold too much snow

[thomski64]

64. ..the wind blew it off..

..into drifts between houses and so forth..

[twodogsbarking]

35. I worked outside in the winter when I was younger.

I feel for all that have to now.

[Retrograde]

36. One unusual thing about this storm

per my sister in Hamburg (the one in New York: she's a couple of blocks from the lake and therefore in the region that usually gets all the snow dumped on it) is that it hit the northern part of Buffalo and the northern towns harder than usual while her area got "only" two feet or so. I suspect Christmas also played a big part, with people who just had to drive to get to relatives for the holiday and then found themselves stuck on or near the Thruway.

Just last week a friend asked why I wasn't visiting my relatives for the holidays. I replied that I don't go to Buffalo in the winter (it's gorgeous in the spring and fall, though) because the weather is too chancy. And I no longer have any winter clothes.

[dflprincess]

58. My friend posted a link to the Hamburg Emergency Services on Facebook

From the pictures it looks like Hamburg got hit pretty hard with ice along the lake.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=539608314872775&set=pb.100064708327764.-2207520000.

[Retrograde]

61. Thanks

Those look like they're very close to the lake shore, so they're going to get all the spray - which then freezes.

[Justice matters.]

38. Hold safe there. Warm front coming in from the southwest starting Wednesday.

Melting temps through NYD wknd.

https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/Buffalo+NY?canonicalCityId=60f9a2ed365f6f8cebd4cf543557cb60f0d1129208900298e1e3e6fd704009b2

[ProfessorGAC]

41. That's Brutal!

Especially with the high winds.
We lucked out. Predictions from 4-12 inches, depending on the model.
We got an inch & a quarter. With that small snowfall, even drifts didn't amount to much.

[DENVERPOPS]

44. The very same thing has happened here in Denver countless times.......

Given the DAYS of warnings before it occurs, (and this includes other cities across the U.S.), I can't help but wonder, what the hell can these stranded people have been thinking to venture out into a potential blizzard and the nightmare they will most certainly find awaits them..........

My hat is off to all the good people and first responders that are willing to go out and try and rescue all of them........

[AdamGG]

46. I've been through multiple 25" plus blizzards in Boston, but this is over 40"

The pictures look like what I remember from the Blizzard of '78, when Gov. Dukakis banned anyone driving for a week to clear the roads. Having lived in Kansas City, which gets crippled with 9" of snow, I know that places like Buffalo and Boston have far greater amounts of equipment to clear the snow and designated places to cart it off to, but this is still massive.

When I was safe at home as a kid, I loved big snowstorms. Part of the fun was missing school, but since this happened during Christmas break, kids in Buffalo won't get that perk.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

49. wow... all those cars left in the middle of the road...hope they were empty

[MustLoveBeagles]

51. K&R

[YoshidaYui]

53. I wonder Niagara Falls is frozen?

I remember seeing images of the falls totally frozen it was amazing.

[sheshe2]

57. 1911

[YoshidaYui]

59. Yes I can totally see that happening

Good find!

[sheshe2]

60. Also happened in 1938 and 2022.

They said in 2022 there was still water flowing under the ice, yet there was solid ice going up 50 feet.

Amazing pictures

[calimary]

66. That is stunning and shocking!

And frankly not a little bit frightening.

Images like these just remind me that Mother Nature is bigger than any of us will ever be.

Be safe, everybody! Don’t risk it. Stay inside where there’s warmth and shelter. Don’t tempt fate!

[LiberalFighter]

55. I wonder if any from other places complained about the cold and weather?

If they want to trade shoes with Buffalo?

[La Coliniere]

56. Yep...a terrible storm indeed

I’m a 68 year old lifelong resident of Buffalo. The infamous Blizzard of 77 was a 3 day pounding of 50-70 mph winds that I’ll never forget. But only 4-6 inches of snow actually feel during that storm. What occurred was that the winter of 1976/77 started early, with below freezing temperatures beginning in early December, with almost daily amounts of snowfall that began building up on the surface of Lake Erie, which froze early. The 100 inches of snow already sitting on the frozen lake was picked up by the extreme southwest wind and deposited on Buffalo and the surrounding area. There were a total of 14 fatalities as a result of that storm.
The storm we are presently recovering from, the Blizzard of 22, was driven by a similar cold front as the Blizzard of 77, but this time, the 4 feet of snow that fell on us was actual lake effect snow created as a result of the cold wind ripping across the relatively still warm Lake Erie. Both blizzards produced towering snow drifts and perilous situations. On Saturday morning, storm still raging, the county executive announced that all emergency services were being suspended until the winds curtailed. I don’t remember that ever happening in any of the numerous snowstorms of the past here in Buffalo. Calling 911 would be useless until it was safe to put first responders back on the road. As of this hour, we’ve lost 28 western New Yorkers because of the blizzard, so this storm has been much worse in terms of fatalities.
People were given a minimum 48 hour window of opportunity to prepare for this monster. On Wednesday morning the media was already calling this a “generational” event, and was in no certain terms telling folks to get their holiday errands done by Thursday evening because it was going to be too dangerous to travel after that and that many people would need to change their holiday plans. Meteorologists were telling us that all hell would break lose about 8am on Friday morning and right on time, all hell broke loose. We were very fortunate to not loose power, and grateful that all of our friends, family and neighbors came out the other side of this 72 hour event unscathed, but many suffered various amounts of property damage.
Personally, the most intense moments during the storm occurred at about 1am Saturday morning. Wind gusts of 65-75mph, temperature of 6 degrees but it feels like minus 20. Wind howling, complete whiteouts, unbelievably cold. We hear banging on the side of the house and can see that a large panel of vinyl siding was detaching below our dining room window. Rugged Buffalonians at heart, my wife and I quickly suited up in our ski gear, grabbed a flash light, hammer and nails and headed out into the devilish night. She held the light while I was able to tack the siding back into place before any extensive damage was done. Honestly, while out there for 6 or 7 minutes felt like an eternity and I suddenly realized what it might feel like when you and your fellow mountain climbers are caught in a raging storm high atop Mt Everest.
My wife and I agree, both were tragic events, but this Blizzard of 22 seemed worse than 77. Both were like living through ice cold category 1 hurricanes, but with enough forewarning and preparation, easily survivable.

[Meowmee]

63. How awful... my best to everyone, I hope they get the help they need

I heard about this and wondered why they were hit so badly with snow etc. When I was a child in Montreal, we had numerous snow storms, but they were always prepared, everything was plowed immediately and I don't recall anything like this or any cancellations etc. ever happening thank goodness.

[LittleGirl]

67. wow, those photos look like my hometown in '78

I lived through the blizzard of '78 in northern Indiana. The year before wasn't much better but the blizzard arrived in late January. Our town was shut down for 2 weeks before front end loaders came down our street to clear it. They dumped the snow on our front lawn which took months to melt as it was about 12 feet high. The drifts were over our 6 foot fence in the back yard. You could walk through them to stand on the roof of our detached garage. It was something I hoped never to live through again. There were a few deaths but nothing like this. It is tragic how many lost their lives.