The death toll in the Buffalo area from the massive blizzard that hit the city on Christmas has risen to 34, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz announced on Wednesday, ABC7 has reported.
Poloncarz said the bodies of 26 people were found in the city of Buffalo, seven were discovered in the suburbs and the location of another was unknown.
As the Buffalo area begins to emerge from deep-freeze temperatures and the nearly 52 inches of snow that fell, authorities are concerned that more fatalities will be discovered as the snow starts to melt.
The warmer temperatures, however, are also starting to bring relief, with the utility company National Grid expecting to fix almost all of the power outages soon.
In the meantime, emergency medical services task forces are going door to door in order to check if anyone is having problems at locations they were not able to reach during the blizzard.
"We are fearful that there are individuals who may have perished living alone or people who were not doing well in an establishment, especially those that still don't have power," Poloncarz said, CNN reported.
Although suburban roads and most major highways in the area reopened Tuesday, there continued to be a driving ban in Buffalo on Wednesday. State and military police were enforcing the ban in order to allow the authorities and rescue services to work effectively in New York state's second most populous city, as well as to better coordinate deliveries of fuel to emergency crews and grocery supplies to markets.
Officials said that some 65% of all Buffalo city streets had at least one lane of traffic open, and crews were working to get at least one lane open on all state and county roads as well, according to ABC7.
Temperatures were already rising on Wednesday to the mid-40s and were expected to increase further by Friday to the low 50s, according to the National Weather Service.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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