17 dead, desperation grows on Buffalo blizzard Day 3: 'Not the Christmas that we wanted'

With first responders in Buffalo and the Northtowns finally able to start maneuvering, the devastation from the fierce winter storm that battered the region with gale force winds, lake-effect snow and bitter subfreezing temperatures was coming to light.

On Day 3 of the storm, desperation was growing.

At least 17 people were dead, and authorities said there was no question that the death toll would increase.

Some of those who died were found frozen to death in their cars. Others were found on the ground, including a Buffalo man. Sophia Clay said her brother's body was found near a convenience store at Kensington and Bailey sometime around 2 a.m. Saturday, but authorities couldn't get to him until 9 p.m. that night. Some had medical emergencies in the height of the storm, and there was no way an ambulance could get to them in time. One died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a blocked furnace vent.

More than 29,000 households still had no power, 20,000 of them in Buffalo alone.

As the storm cleared and highway crews were able to start clearing roads, National Grid line workers discovered the extent of the damage to the power grid. Not only had trees brought down power lines, but substations themselves were snowed in and frozen over. An 18-foot snow drift was blocking access to one of those substations.

There was a very real possibility that it could take until as long as Tuesday for the lights and heat to come back on

In the meantime, the shivering souls who were in their third day without heat were resorting to huddling under blanket forts in their living rooms and warming their homes with pots of boiling water, if they were lucky enough to have gas-powered stoves.

Many gave up and fled their homes. Some found shelter at warming centers. Others accepted the generosity of strangers who opened their homes to them. Dozens warmed themselves at the Buffalo Police Department's Ferry-Fillmore district station. About 200 people sought shelter at Cleveland Hill High School.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that an additional 200 members of the National Guard were deployed, in addition to the 50-odd sent on Saturday, but even they were getting stuck on their way into Buffalo and needed to be rescued.

By nighttime Sunday, there were scattered reports of stores being looted. Acting State Police Superintendent Steve Nigrelli says law enforcement have two confirmed reports of looting. He called them "isolated incidents" and "not reflective of the greater community."

Plows were making first passes through the most impacted areas, but only on major roads, with the goal of allowing emergency workers to get where they were needed to most. Side streets in the city of Buffalo remained untouched.

A travel ban remained in place in all of Erie County. But even as first responders were still trying to get to people believed to be stranded in their cars, some people tried to drive and ended up getting stuck, compounding the emergency.

Mayor Byron W. Brown took to the radio to admonish anyone thinking about trying to drive.

"I'm not asking. I'm not pleading. I'm telling you: Get off the roads right now in the City of Buffalo," the mayor said in an interview on WBEN radio.

"You are adding to the problem if you are driving in Buffalo. People are dying in cars. That's the reality of it," he said.

"And it is heartbreaking that people are driving," the mayor added, noting that some people were "out sightseeing."

Some of those who were stranded were rescued through connections made on a Facebook group that became a lifeline to an untold number. Among them was a Cheektowaga woman stranded on her way back from work at a hospital. A man she had never met scooped her up on a snowmobile and got her to safety.

A somber Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz tried to drive home how serious the circumstances still were at a 9 a.m. storm briefing.

Rescue efforts were still underway, he said. Roads were impassable. The blizzard warning was over, but heavy lake effect snow was still falling in the Southtowns, and the temperatures remained below freezing.

"This is a major disaster," he said. "This is not the Christmas that we wanted."

– Staff reporters Aaron Besecker, Mark Sommer and Dan Herbeck contributed to this report.