‘Buried in my house’
Frozen-in-time tale
Pheette Jackson, 65, is a lifelong Buffalo resident who was forced to hunker down during the deadly winter storm. Jackson is a diabetic who also suffers from high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. She discussed her experiences with Post reporter Jorge FitzGibbon in the aftermath of the once-in-a-generation blizzard:
IT’S been hell. When the storm started on Friday at, I want to say around 1 o’clock in the afternoon — it might have been a little earlier, around 12 — it just came and it just kept coming. And then the power went out about 2 o’clock, 1:30 or 2 o’clock.
I was here in the cold for over 72 hours, and it was just frigid cold, and then the following day, it got colder. The nights were cold. I had to hunker down in the kitchen by the stove with the burners. And finally, the power came back on the 26th, the day after Christmas. It came on about 7 p.m.
So after that, now the issue is I can’t get out. I’m buried in my house. My neighbor just came and helped me shovel my porch out because I couldn’t even get out my door, my front door. My truck is buried. There’s a car in front of my driveway buried, stuck in the snow. And so when I come out of my house out of the side door I can come onto the driveway, but I can’t get to my garage where my trash receptacles are.
I put them in there when I knew the snow was coming because I really didn’t know where to put them because I knew it was going to be windy. So, I had to take my garbage and put it in the basement for now.
When I walk to the end of my driveway where my truck is in the driveway, I can get into my car — I shoveled all that little area out. But when I get to the front of my truck, that’s as far as I can go. I can’t get to the sidewalk or anything because the snow drifts are as high as my car.
It’s more than anyone can handle. It’s more than we’ve ever had. Now my issue is that I don’t run out of food, because I’ve been trying to call around and find out who can come and shovel me out.
Health issues
Basically, nobody’s trying to help. I told them I got health issues and things of that nature. They asked me how was I with the medication, and I said, “Yeah, I’m OK with this weekend, but after that, I would hope that by some time next week someone will be able to help me.”
It’s just awful. It’s awful. And the thing is other people are moving. There’s people up and down the street. I see traffic people moving on the main street, which is Filmore. But I can’t get my car out. I can’t even walk to the sidewalk because of the snow.
The last time I saw something like this was the blizzard of ’77, and they said that this blizzard of 2022 is worse than the blizzard of ’77. The blizzard of ’77, nine people died. So far the last I heard on the news the number was 31, or probably more.
The blizzard of ’77 was bad. But this, I feel it’s worse.