New York, USA.- The roads reopened this Thursday in Buffalo after a series of winter storms that according to local media killed at least 37 people in that region of the United States.
Authorities were still looking for people who were dead or trapped due to the snow.
The driving ban in New York’s second most populous city was lifted shortly after midnight Thursday, Mayor Byron Brown announced.
“Significant progress has been made on snow removal,” he said at a news conference Wednesday night. Suburban highways, major highways and the Buffalo Niagara International Airport have already reopened.
Still, Brown urged residents not to drive if you don’t have to.
National Guardsmen went door-to-door to check on people in homes that lost power, and authorities faced the prospect of finding more victims as the snow melted.
Buffalo Police and other officials were also searching for victims, sometimes using snowmobiles, trucks and even officers’ personal equipment.
With the death toll already surpassing that of the notorious 1977 blizzard, local officials faced questions about the response to last week’s storm. They insist that they prepared, but that the weather was extraordinary, even for a region prone to severe winter storms.
“The city did everything it could in historic blizzard conditions,” the Democratic mayor said.
Meanwhile, officials looked at a forecast for rain in the coming days as snow melts and temperatures approach or exceed 10 degrees Celsius.
Governor Kathy Hochul said the state was ready to deploy nearly 800,000 sandbags and more than 300 pumps and generators to respond to flooding if necessary.
