Erie County in western Recent York is digging out after the historic holiday blizzard that killed dozens of individuals and crippled the region for days.
Snow fell at rates of three inches per hour at times. Buffalo, the county seat, officially received 51.9 inches of snow, based on the National Weather Service. Some towns within the Buffalo area reported as much as 6 feet of snow.
With greater than 1,200 miles of roads, a few of which have 4 or five lanes, that leaves a number of snow that should be removed to get the metro area moving again.
“Snow is being hauled to empty lots throughout town,” said Bill Geary, Erie County’s commissioner of public works. “There are 4 total dump spots with mountains of snow. We’d like to make use of spots we had not used before.”
Lake Erie is just not an option for dumping snow despite being the Thirteenth-largest lake on this planet, based on NOAA. The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation fears snow contaminated by the salt used to melt ice on roads, for instance, will harm the lake.
“We try to not dump it within the lake,” Geary told Fox Weather. “It’s definitely more difficult in additional populated areas.”
Not less than considered one of those dump spots which might be used after a snowstorm already had a mountain of snow on it from a November storm that made the record books, too. That three-day storm blasted the Buffalo Niagara International Airport with 36.6 inches of snow. Hamburg, in Erie County, got 81.2 inches of snow, about 6.5 feet.
This storm marks the second time in only two months that the National Guard was called in for storm recovery. Since November, Buffalo has seen more snow than it often sees all winter by 6 inches.
Follow all of the coverage of the deadly winter storm in western Recent York
“The National Guard is assisting with getting people from their homes for dialysis and providing traffic control to my snow removal crews,” said Geary. “There are pedestrians walking the roads, with some cars. The traffic control is to forestall accidents.”
The county’s goal is to have at the least one lane open on every street by Wednesday night — five days after the storm. The county doesn’t plow town of Buffalo’s roads, however the DPW is assisting to clear 1 / 4 of town, based on Geary. The second-largest city within the Empire State was still under a driving ban through midweek.
Crews plow roads, then push and scoop snow off side streets to primary roads with high-lift loaders. Then dump trucks haul the snow to the storage lots.
Erie County DPW has 200 employees to drive 45 plow trucks, 15 high-lifts and 4 snowblowers. The blizzard forced Geary to rent 72 additional high-lifts and 119 more haul trucks, he said.
Geary said the 15-day outlook, which calls for above-average temperatures, gives him hope.
“It’s going to help tremendously,” Geary said. “Snow storage (potential) along the roads will increase before our next event (storm), just by melting.”
Within the meantime, drivers in intersections could have to see around 4- to 5-foot-high snowbanks lining some roads.
