Temperatures in all 50 states plunged to the freezing point or below Tuesday as a ferocious storm dumped piles of snow on upstate New York, trapping residents in their homes and stranding motorists on roadways.
Even hardened Buffalo residents were caught off-guard Tuesday as more than 4 feet fell in parts of the city. Authorities said snow totals by Wednesday afternoon could top 6 feet in the hardest-hit areas south of Buffalo, with another storm expected Thursday.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a State of Emergency Wednesday for counties most affected by the weather. Erie County officials identified a fifth storm-related death.
A 46-year-old man was found dead in his car buried under 12-15 feet of snow in the town of Alden, which is east of Buffalo.
Cuomo said on Twitter that the state activated 526 plows, 74 large loaders, 1,247 operators, 17 large snow blowers, and four truck-mounted snow blowers. He also said Amtrak service west of Albany is suspended through at least this afternoon.
From Hawaii to the Carolinas, Americans shivered as racing winds and icy roads caused accidents, school closings and delays in municipal operations from the Midwest to the South even where snowfall was low or mercifully absent.
The storm was blamed for at least six deaths in New York, New Hampshire and Michigan.
Jeff Masters, meteorology director at the online site Weather Underground, told The Associated Press that the low temperatures are January-like instead of what's normal for November. Masters said temperatures were 15 to 35 degrees below average over much of the country due to the presence of arctic air.
In New York, the snowstorm forced motorists in 150 vehicles, including a women's basketball team, to ride out the onslaught in their vehicles. They waited for hours to be freed, with some waiting more than a day. Cuomo deployed 150 members of the National Guard to help clear snow-clogged roads and remove abandoned vehicles.
Members of the Niagara University women's basketball team were napping on and off 17 hours into their wait on Tuesday night. Some got so thirsty they drank melted snow, said Coach Kendra Faustin, who was traveling with her 1-year-old.
"It seemed like a nightmare. It just didn't feel like it was going to end," Bryce Foreback, 23, of Shicora, Pennsylvania, told The Associated Press by cellphone 20 hours into his wait for help. "I haven't slept in like 30 hours and I'm just waiting to get out of here."
Foreback had become stuck in a long line of cars near the Lackawanna toll booths just south of Buffalo about 10:30 Monday night.
Troopers used all-terrain vehicles to deliver supplies, state police Capt. Ed Kennedy said. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said about 140 motorists were stranded. Many chose to stay with their cars, while others left them, he said.
"Other than wishing they weren't stuck in traffic, they're warm and safe in their vehicles," Kennedy said.
The lake-effect snow created a stark divide: In downtown Buffalo and north of the city, there was a mere dusting of precipitation, while in the south parts, snow was everywhere. The snow band that brought the snow was very much evident throughout the day as gray clouds persistently hovered over the southern part of the city. The band was so apparent that the wall of snow could be seen from a mile away.
The wintry blast that included bitter cold in spots created havoc across a wide swath of the country. In New Hampshire and elsewhere, icy roads led to accidents. Lake-effect storms in Michigan produced gale-force winds and as much as 18 inches of snow and canceled several flights at the Grand Rapids airport.
Schools closed in the North Carolina mountains amid blustery winds and ice-coated roads. In Indiana, three firefighters were hurt when a semitrailer hit a fire truck on a snowy highway.
In Atlanta, tourists Morten and Annette Larsen from Copenhagen were caught off-guard by the 30-degree weather as they took photos of a monument to the 1996 summer Olympics at Centennial Olympic Park.
"It's as cold here as it is in Denmark right now. We didn't expect that," Larsen said, waving a hand over his denim jacket, buttoned tightly over a hooded sweatshirt.
The Weather Channel reported that low temperatures were expected to spread south and east on Wednesday and that relief would not reach parts of America until the weekend.
The town of West Seneca, N.Y., recorded 45 inches by late morning and Alden, to the east, had 48 inches. But typical of lake-effect snow, areas just a few miles away, including downtown and north Buffalo, had just a couple of inches.
At one point, nearly half of West Seneca's plows were bogged down in heavy snow, officials told The Buffalo News. In neighboring Orchard Park, the highway superintendent called the rate of snowfall "unbelievable," while next door in Hamburg police cars were getting stuck.
Oakley and her son, Todd, were passing the time watching "Dumb and Dumber" on Netflix.
"We can't even walk down to the end of the street and get ourselves a pizza," she told The Associated Press, laughing. "Maybe if you had snow shoes, I don't know."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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