Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - A deep-dive, investigative report finds numerous failures in the response to the Christmas weekend blizzard in Buffalo. The USA TODAY Network New York report finds those failures may have led to a number of fatalities associated with the devastating storm.
David Robinson says his investigation has gone several months digging into government emails, emergency dispatch data, and interviews with people involved in emergency response and some of the people who were trapped in the storm. Robinson tells WBEN he's found a large scope of failures within the emergency response.
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"Some of the more striking findings are related to some of the interactions between different levels of government, whether it's the city of Buffalo, Erie County, the state and all the different agencies that were involved in response, all the way up to the federal government and the National Guard and its deployment," says Robinson.
Robinson points to a number of gaps in communication at the emergency dispatch level. "Whether it's the way that the county-run dispatch operations interact with the the city of Buffalo emergency responders, and how they gave calls, priority codes, and how different emergency responders who were doing their best to make a rescue during a once in a generation storm, how questions are raised around the way that they were dispatched, and how they overlapped as far as kind of how they interacted and trying to rescue stranded motorist or respond to emergency medical calls," notes Robinson.
Another concern, Robinson says, surrounds the National Guard's response to the storm. "The issues that some of the emails that we uncovered, especially from the the county level, as far as their questions around how many national guardsmen were there in the initial phase, I think. County Executive Mark Poloncarz, put the number at 10 guardsmen and asking, you know why there weren't more, in an email on Sunday with the federal government," notes Robinson.
Robinson also highlights the death of Anndel Taylor, who was stuck in her car trying to get to her ailing father during the blizzard. Taylor had reported to work before the storm hit December 23rd, but her shift ended after the storm hit. "There are a lot of questions around the timing of that, and whether it should have been earlier and what impact that would have had on people who got stranded and diversity response overall," explains Robinson.
Robinson says he has heard some responses to the questions raised in the report. "Their response is essentially that they're taking some steps to address some of these issues, especially some of the communications gaps as far as the the county 911 Dispatch operation and its interactions with the city," says Robinson. Robinson say he's been waiting seven months now on a public records request for data from the county. "Until you get those answers, the hard data on where the vehicles were, it's difficult to kind of determine where the solutions lie as far as trying to make sure that the none of these mistakes are repeated," adds Robinson.
At least 40 deaths in Erie and Niagara Counties are attributed to the storm.