The aftermath of what’s been unofficially dubbed winter storm Elliott — which blanketed parts of the country with ice and snow and caused more than 65 deaths, including at least 34 in western New York — is now in the recovery phase.
But Buffalo officials say as the weather warms up, a whole new series of problems could arise.
CBS News reported that trees are down, roads are blocked by abandoned and stalled vehicles and emergency road crews are trying desperately to reach anyone who may be stranded as well as make the roads passable again.
Although Buffalo officials said crews were able to rescue dozens of motorists before the roads became impassable, nearly 1,000 calls for help — many likely duplicates — got no response.
Wednesday, members of the National Guard and law enforcement were out making sure the roads were clear of traffic to allow crews to deal with hundreds of vehicles and to move a massive amount of snow.
Driving is barred on Buffalo streets as crews work to clear at least one lane on each street so that emergency responders can get through, city officials said. In a news conference Tuesday, officials said roads remain hazardous and some emergency vehicles were still getting stuck.
If temperatures reach the 50s, as predicted, officials are warning of a melting-and-freezing cycle that could be dangerous and costly. And flooding in that scenario is a real risk in some areas, too, ABC News said.
Deadliest storm
“Even as the rescue effort continued, officials and emergency workers were reeling from what they said was the extraordinary challenge of saving people in this blizzard, which set records for its duration — 36 straight hours — and 79-mile-an-hour winds,” The New York Times reported.
The Times said the victims included “a medical professional trying to get home for Christmas, a soon-to-be father stepping out for milk. One man, found dead in a snowbank, died on his 56th birthday.”
By Wednesday morning, the death toll in that area was at least 34. According to CNN, “Twenty-six of those who died were found in Buffalo, while seven were located in the suburbs, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said in a news conference, adding he did not know where one person was found.”
“They have been found a number of different ways,” said Mike DeGeorge, the spokesman for the Buffalo mayor’s office, per the Times. “They have been found in stranded vehicles, they have been found on sidewalks, near street corners, some have been found in snowbanks. Some have been found because some have been without power since the storm began.”
Trouble elsewhere
Elliott was the unofficial name given by the Weather Channel for the frigid storm system. And other parts of the country, including Jackson, Mississippi, are still dealing with their own residue after it blasted parts of Canada and the United States between Dec. 21 and 26.
NBC News reported that parts of Jackson are without water due to broken water lines, while others have been under a boil-water order because the water pressure dropped. Leaks caused by the severe weather have been blamed.
“It is just the latest challenge to hit Jackson’s beleaguered water system, which suffered a dayslong outage over the summer and has previously failed during cold weather,” the article said.
Other areas had water problems, too.
“Residents in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Florence, South Carolina, had little or no water pressure because of line breaks, and Memphis, Tennessee, issued a precautionary boil water advisory Monday and asked residents to limit nonessential water use as officials tried to fix water leaks, which they said could take days,” per NBC.
Four people died two days before Christmas and an unknown number were injured in a 50-car pileup on the Ohio Turnpike, as WTVG reported.