Dig out, Buffalo – there’s more on the way.
The western New York city and its suburbs are bracing for up to another three feet of snow by Friday morning after a storm already dropped nearly six feet on some areas in an epic display by Mother Nature that left at least seven people dead in the region.
One woman, who went into labor Tuesday morning but was prevented by snowy streets from getting to the hospital, gave birth to a healthy baby girl at a South Buffalo firehouse later that night.
Bethany Hojnacki and her husband welcomed little Lucy into the world about 9:30 p.m. after firefighters came to the family’s aid, the Buffalo News reported.
Some 100 vehicles traveling along the New York State Thruway were trapped by the fast-falling snow before Gov. Cuomo ordered a 132-mile stretch of the east-west running Interstate 90 closed to travel through Wednesday as the dangerous storm set in Tuesday.
By Wednesday afternoon, passengers reported being still stuck in the drifts, including one Greyhound bus rider who wished for “a magic carpet” to carry her home as she entered nearly 40 hours stuck on the whitewashed roadway.
“I haven’t ate since Monday,” the woman wrote on Twitter as she beamed out photographs of the slippery situation.
New York City-based indie band Interpol was forced to cancel a show in Toronto scheduled for Tuesday after their tour bus also was swept up in the incredible snow dump. The band tweeted that they were still stuck Wednesday afternoon, more than 30 hours after trying to depart Buffalo.
The women’s basketball team from Niagara University, north of Buffalo, was marooned more than 30 hours on a team bus along the Thruway. They were rescued early Wednesday.
“It started to get bad fast at about 2 a.m. (Tuesday morning) and we came to a dead stop and haven’t moved since,” Niagara coach Kendra Faustin told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday night. “It was a rough weekend for us on the court and it just won’t end.”
By the time the first storm moved out, South Cheektowaga, a suburb west of Buffalo, tallied some 65 inches of snow and residents in the region used social media to circulate photographs of the massive drifts of white stuff.
Harry Scull Jr./AP Christine Bloom works to clear snow off her vehicle to try to get to work in Hamburg, N.Y., on Wednesday.
Harry Scull Jr./AP The New York Jets are scheduled to play Sunday at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, N.Y., but several feet of snow must be cleared from the field and stands before then.
Gary Wiepert/AP A vehicle with a large chunk of snow on its top drives along Route 20 after digging out from a massive snow fall in Lancaster, N.Y.
Harry Scull Jr./AP Braeden Attig,11, removes snow from a buried car along Powers Road in Orchard Park, N.Y., on Wednesday.
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Many of the reported deaths were cardiac arrests suffered as people shoveled snow. At least one man was found dead inside his car, which had been buried by the heavy precipitation. Another man apparently died of a heart attack after he couldn't reach a hospital because of the snow.
Erie County officials nicknamed the storm “Knife” on Wednesday after it cut through the region.
One family told of a wall of snow that burst through windows after falling off a neighbor’s roof.
“It was a huge crash. We all started running back there. We actually thought that it was the roof coming down in the house,” Chrissy Gritzke Hazard told the Associated Press of the moment her husband, five children and three of their friends heard the roar. “We were definitely not expecting it to be the doors blown out, the frame, everything, inside the house.”
In Orchard Park, where the Buffalo Bills are scheduled to play the New York Jets on Sunday, the team was desperately searching for people to take up snow shovels and clear the stadium to the tune of $10 an hour and game tickets.
The team wants people working around the clock removing snow, but even that may not be enough. Team officials said it generally takes three days to clear one foot of snow, and more than six could fall by Friday morning.
The region is expected to see above-freezing temperatures over the weekend, with snow switching to rain.
Amtrak train service remains suspended between Albany and Buffalo after the storm and schools throughout the region were closed.
Gov. Cuomo was expected in Buffalo on Wednesday afternoon to address the snow emergency in the region.
Bitter cold has descended on much of the U.S., including in New York City, where November temperatures hovered around freezing. At least two deaths were reported after snowstorms in Michigan and New Hampshire.
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With News Wire Services
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