U.S. REELING FR
Storm seems to slowly come to an end. Blizzard leaves more than 60 dead across the U.S.
Americans have been warned to “stay out of the city of Buffalo”, where two storms in a month have dumped almost a year’s worth of snow.
With a driving ban still in place, warming temperatures in Western New York are expected to reveal more bodies in snow banks in coming days.
Authorities are also investigating the “unacceptable” number of flights cancelled by Southwest airline, which accounted for the bulk of cancellations in the region.
This year’s harsh U.S. winter blast stranded people in cars for days, shuttered city airports and left some residents shivering without heat.
A large part of the United States was left reeling from the ferocious winter storm, with at least an additional two dozen deaths reported in parts of the country, and power outages in communities from Maine to Washington state.
Western New York was hardest hit by an Arctic deep freeze and storm front that extended over most of the United States for days as far south as the Mexican border.
“It’s still snowing” in Western New York, said National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Oravec, predicting a further 2 inches [5 centimetres].
“This is probably the last of the snow.”
But Tuesday remained cold, with a high of -2C and a low of -6C, Mr Oravec said.
Across the country, at least 60 lives have been lost in weather-related incidents in recent days, NBC News said.
Trisha LoGrasso and her family were huddled around a space heater in a makeshift hut in her Buffalo living room on Monday.
She was without heat because of a gas leak, the temperature inside the home was 5.5C, and burst pipes left her with no running water.
Deaths in cars, homes and snow banks
Across the country, at least 60 lives have been lost in weather-related incidents in recent days, NBC News said.
County officials reported 28 stormrelated deaths in Erie County, including 20 in Buffalo, and one in neighboring Niagara County.
The dead were found in cars, homes and snow banks. Some died while shovelling snow, others when emergency crews could not respond in time to medical crises.
More bodies are expected to be found as the snow is cleared or melts.
The county issued a “Shovel Smart” alert warning that the overexertion from “shovelling heavy, wet snow can cause back injuries and heart attacks.”
The death toll surpasses that of the historic Blizzard of 1977, blamed for killing as many as 29 people in an area known for harsh winter weather.
Driving ban after deaths in Buffalo
A driving ban for residents remained in effect for all of Buffalo. Eerie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, speaking at a media briefing, urged residents to stay home and the curious to stay away.
He said people were driving into the city “who want to just look at the snow”.
The county has called in 100 military police from the state National Guard as well as officers from New York City to help manage traffic, sending residents on the road home and turning away motorists trying to get into the city.
“Please stay out of the city of Buffalo,” he said.
Buffalo residents with snowplows attached to the fronts of their jeeps and pick-up trucks helped clear side streets Tuesday.
People walked kilometres in the lanes cut by snowploughs to get to stores that are beginning to open.
Blizzard for the ages
U.S. President Joe Biden offered federal assistance on Monday to hard-hit New York, while Govenor Kathy Hochul toured the aftermath in Buffalo — her hometown — and called the blizzard “one for the ages”.
Almost every fire truck in the city became stranded on Saturday, she said.
Ms Hochul, a Democrat, noted the storm came a little over a month after the region was inundated with another “historic” snowfall. Between the two storms, snowfall totals are not far off from the 242 centimetres the area normally sees in an entire winter season.
Flights cancelled, mainly by Southwest
Some 2900 domestic and international flights were cancelled on Tuesday local time, according to the tracking site FlightAware.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said it will look into flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines that left travellers stranded at airports across the country amid the winter storm.
Many airlines were forced to cancel flights, but Southwest was by far the leader.
It cancelled more than 70 per cent of its flights on Monday, more than 60 per cent on Tuesday, and warned that it would operate just over a third of its usual schedule in the days ahead to allow crews to get back to where they needed to be.
American, United, Delta and JetBlue, suffered cancellation rates of between none and 2 per cent by Tuesday.
The disparity has triggered a closer look at Southwest operations by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which called the rate of cancellations “disproportionate and unacceptable,” and sought to ensure that the Dallas carrier was sticking by its obligations to stranded customers.