BUFFALO, N.Y. — BUFFALO, N.Y. — Homeowners opened their front doors to find themselves sealed in by sheer walls of white. Shovelers turned walkways into head-high canyons. A woman gave birth in a firehouse after the snow prevented her from reaching the hospital.
Even for Buffalo, a place that typically shrugs at snow, this was an epic snowfall, the kind of onslaught folks will be telling their grandchildren about.
The Buffalo area found itself buried under as much as 5 1/2 feet of snow Wednesday, with another lake-effect storm expected to bring 2 to 3 more feet by late today.
“This is an historic event. When all is said and done, this snowstorm will break all sorts of records, and that’s saying something in Buffalo,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a visit to the city.
The storm came in so fast and furious over Lake Erie early Tuesday it trapped more than 100 vehicles along a 132-mile stretch of the New York State Thruway, which remained closed Wednesday. People were marooned at homes, on highways and at work. Residents who can handle 6 inches of snow as if it were a light dusting were forced to improvise.
Tom Wilson, of West Seneca, split a Salisbury steak frozen dinner with co-workers and tried his best to get some rest when he was stuck 36 hours at his warehouse job.
“I slept on a pallet. Then I slept on some office chairs, and then I went back to the pallet,” he said. “Then I found some sponges to lay on. I found one pack of sponges unopened. That looks like a pillow to me.”
“We tried to make popcorn with a two-by-four, two empty pop kegs, some charcoal and a dust pan,” he added. “It didn’t work.”
Trapped on a team bus on the Thruway for nearly 30 hours, the Niagara University women’s basketball team melted snow for water, posed with long faces for pictures that were posted online and generally tried to keep each other’s spirits up.
“I’m sure when it’s all done we’ll look back at it and remember how great a bonding experience it was. For now, I think everyone just wants to get home and sleep in their own beds,” said coach Kendra Faustin.
How snowy was it? The National Weather Service said it was so bad that some of the spotters it relies on to update accumulation totals couldn’t get out of their houses to take measurements.
Bethany Hojnacki went into labor at the height of the storm and ended up giving birth in a Buffalo fire station after she and her husband couldn’t get to the hospital. Baby Lucy weighed in at 6 pounds, 2 ounces. Mother and child were later taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
Cuomo said Wednesday afternoon that all trapped travelers had been removed from their cars, though some truckers were staying with their rigs.
Asked by reporters how officials could allow people to be snowbound in cars for 24 hours, Cuomo cited a jackknifed trailer that prevented plows from removing fast-falling snow and drivers’ own choices.
“What happened was, even though the Thruway was officially closed, people went on. We didn’t immediately block every entrance. It was a mistake,” Cuomo said.
“Part of it is citizen responsibility,” he added. “If the road is closed, it’s closed.”
The storm was blamed for up to seven deaths in western New York, at least four of them from heart attacks. Erie County officials said a man was discovered in his car, which was in a ditch and buried in snow 24 miles east of Buffalo. It was unclear how he died.
Sunny skies returned to some hard-hit areas Wednesday, but workers were still trying to cart off the acres of snow. Lake-effect snow fell heavily on some northern New York areas east of Lake Ontario.
With an additional 2 to 3 feet possible by today, the one-week totals for the Buffalo area will approach the average snowfall for a year: 93.6 inches, or close to 8 feet. Cuomo warned that a weekend warm-up could lead to significant flooding when the thick blanket of snow melts. Rain is possible this weekend.
The highest snowfall total for the Buffalo area this time of year was 65 inches. National Weather Service meteorologist David Church said that forecasters haven’t determined yet how this storm ranks, but that 60 to 70 inches in 24 hours is probably in the top 5 for the region.
