The death toll from a deadly winter storm rose to 39 on Friday. A majority of the deaths occurred in the city of Buffalo itself.
Monique Alexander, 52, is among seventeen of the 39 victims were found outside in the devastating storm.
The grandmother left her home on Christmas Eve as she said she would be ‘right back’ but after a few hours, her daughter grew concerned and reached out to other residents on Facebook.
Majority of the deaths occurred in the city of Buffalo itself, while the eight others occurred in surrounding towns.
Seventeen of the victims were found outside in the freezing cold, 11 were found dead inside their homes after the storm knocked out power to thousands of people, while four were in their cars and four others had heart attacks while shoveling or plowing the more than eight feet of slush.
Three others died because emergency crews could not get to them on time, after hundreds of cars were left abandoned on city streets and a driving ban was put in place.
Poloncarz said on Thursday that the county has now spent $5million on private contractors to help with storm cleanup, $1 million of which will be allocated directly to Buffalo alone.
But as the city starts to reopen its streets following the deadly storm, Poloncarz said, an emergency operations center that was set up to deal with the storm will be winding down its efforts.
Still, he noted there is ‘a lot of work to be done,’ writing: ‘The National Guard and our emergency crews will remain in the area and on the roads, so please make sure to give them room — some of these vehicles are very large and not typically on streets.’
The county executive added that the Erie County Sheriff’s Office and ‘all county departments will be doing an evaluation of resources and action plans to make sure every response is always better than the last one.’
But officials have said they warned residents about a ‘potentially deadly storm’ making its way to the area, and instituted a travel ban.
Critics say that ban came in too late for employees who were asked to go to work, as residents worked to stock up on supplies for the holiday weekend and were left in dangerous and life-threatening conditions.
