Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Plows, loaders, shovels and blowers continue to scrape and dig away at the feet of snow that buried Buffalo in a Christmas weekend blizzard as officials announce a still mounting death toll.
"The total death toll in the City of Buffalo has reached 28 individuals in Buffalo alone," Mayor Byron Brown said in a briefing heard LIVE on WBEN Tuesday. The deaths in Buffalo are the majority of the overall storm toll for the region which is approaching 40. "We have just recovered another body," Brown stated and added that it is believed that all stranded motorists have been rescued.
Despite the gruesome death toll, the monumental effort of removing the mountains of snow continues. "We are making significant progress," Brown said.
Stranded vehicles remains a major issue that is slowing progress, forcing crews to tow, haul and remove abandoned vehicles from the roads before plows and loaders can make a pass. "We will literally be hauling literally hundreds of vehicles off streets today," the mayor said.
Brown said he and Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia were touring areas of the city and saw first-hand the struggles emergency officials are facing in navigating around stranded vehicles. The mayor said passing emergency vehicles at Main and Best veered to avoid abandoned vehicles and narrowly missed pedestrian nearby.
Gramaglia and Brown also announce the forming of an anti-looting task force that will focus on handling a number of looting incidents that have angered officials and they add that multiple arrests have been made.
The number of homes without power in Buffalo has dwindled steadily from its height of more than 20 thousand. "We are now down to under 4-thousand households that are still without power in the City of Buffalo," Brown said.
Snow clearing efforts continue across the city and have now reached neighborhood streets, however it will take days to clear the amount of snow that is clogging the streets of Buffalo.
On an optimistic note, Brown said, "We are a strong an resilient community."
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