BUFFALO: Stories of families trapped for days during the "blizzard of the century" emerged Tuesday, as the monster storm that killed dozens in the United States over the Christmas weekend continued to wreak havoc on residents of New York State and air travelers across the country.
After authorities confirmed three additional deaths in Erie County in western New York, the epicenter of the crisis, the number of deaths attributed to the winter storm increased to more than 50.
The mayor of Buffalo, the largest city in lakeside county, Byron Brown, tweeted that the police department "expects that number to rise." Buffalo has been paralyzed for five days by chest-deep snow banks and power outages, and more snow is expected on Tuesday.
Kathy Hochul, governor of New York State and a native of Buffalo, compared the storm's aftermath to "a war zone."
Hochul stated to reporters on Monday, "Certainly it is the blizzard of the century."
Commuters and some residents fleeing their freezing homes became stuck on highways and could not be rescued as temperatures dropped.
The issue was made worse by the fact that ambulances couldn't get to some areas for dozens of hours and snowplows couldn't do their job because of the storm's intensity, so rescuers had to be rescued in some cases.
Anndel Taylor, 22, of Buffalo, died in her car after getting stuck on her way home from work, according to her family.
In a video that Taylor sent and her sister posted, her car is covered in snow to the windows.
Her family in North Carolina told local TV station WSOC-TV that emergency responders, who themselves became stuck trying to rescue her, discovered her dead 18 hours later, possibly from carbon monoxide poisoning.
According to The New York Times, one father said that he and his four young children were stuck in their car on the streets of Buffalo for 11 hours before they were rescued.
According to Zila Santiago, 30, he fed his children juice from his trunk and kept the engine running for warmth.
A passing snowplow finally rescued them at dawn.
Some people in a city that is used to snowstorms were saying that a travel ban that was put in place too late on Friday morning was to blame for the extent of the disaster.
According to Flightaware.com, the perfect storm of fierce snow storms, howling winds, and below-freezing temperatures necessitated the cancellation of nearly 20,000 US flights in recent days, including over 3,000 on Tuesday.
Southwest Airlines was criticized by the US government for canceling more than 60% of its flights on Tuesday as a result of escalating logistics issues.
The Department of Transportation stated in a tweet that it was "concerned by Southwest's unacceptable rate of cancellations" and would investigate whether the company is "complying with its customer service plan," and the aviation oversight committee of the United States Senate stated that it would investigate causes that "go beyond weather."
Monday, US President Joe Biden approved a New York state emergency declaration, releasing funds for the state's recovery from the disaster.
The international airport in Buffalo will remain closed until Wednesday morning, and thousands of residents of the city are still without power.
"You can absolutely walk to open stores, check on neighbors, and other places." But don't drive," warned Mark Poloncarz, the county executive, in a tweet.
Bill Sherlock, who has lived in Buffalo for a long time, told AFP that his house had received approximately four feet of snow, but that he was fortunate to have food and running electricity.
The 38-year-old attorney acknowledged that some of his neighborhood's homes have been without power since Friday and that those with less fortunate circumstances "probably had the worst Christmas of their lives."
For the first time in nearly a week, Sherlock said he might wait another day: We won't go anywhere unless absolutely necessary."
Bison Chairman Byron Brown let CNN know that numerous occurrences of plundering were accounted for in the city over Christmas weekend and eight captures have been made.
On Tuesday, the National Weather Service predicted isolated snowfall in western New York, but a thaw was on the way.
By the weekend, temperatures were expected to rise to around 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius), but officials warned that melting snow could cause minor flooding.
All mainland US states experienced temperatures below freezing over the weekend as a result of the extreme weather, including communities in Texas near the Mexican border where some newly arrived migrants have had difficulty finding shelter.
According to the tracker poweroutage.us, at one point on Saturday, nearly 1.7 million customers were without power in the bitter cold.
Some of the busiest transportation routes in the country, including a portion of the Interstate 70 highway that runs across the country, were also temporarily shut down as a result of road ice and whiteout conditions.