This is what Buffalo does to people. NSFW

[OriginalWheelman]

In case you all wonder why I'm like this, I blame it squarely on Buffalo's weather. I site as evidence, what has happened to this poor Buffalo man. Take a moment and enjoy the madness.

NSFW
http://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10205105114526876

[OriginalWheelman]

A few pics from my friends at home digging out.

http://imgur.com/a/MoEaL



This is the look in my friend's back yard. His 4 foot fence is back there somewhere.



Pics from during the storm.











A random pic. A friend of a friend.


Firefighter carrying a man to the hospital on foot.


Backhoes clearing snow because all the plows are stuck / busy.





It takes a sense of humor to get through this. My sister has been stranded at work for 3 days. She is a security guard. My brother has been non-stop at the firehall since the snow started. My sister, her newborn, and her boyfriend are stuck in their house. They haven't been able to open their doors for 3 days. Fortunately they are stocked up and have supplies to last until Monday. The most terrifying part of this is they are now predicting a warm week next week that will melt all the now and cause drastic flooding. I'm sitting on Facebook 3,000 miles away and all day I am reading about people who can't leave work, home. People dying because they can't get to hospitals. What I can't help but think is where are the Feds? Where is FEMA? These people are trapped and running out of supplies. We joke and laugh to try and get through it but in all, I'm worried.

[themadscientist]

Northern folks are savvy. It's those transition areas where they get a light dusting and start crashing into stuff left and right that crack me up.

[frapjap]

Elsa must have had a Taylor Swift sized breakup.

[sx moneypit]

[numbnuts240]

be kind to the equipment we sent up there, we haven't had a chance to use any of it ourselves yet.

[OriginalWheelman]

My sister got plowed out by the national guard.

She is just inside the effected zone, and she was not plowed out until 1PM today.





She had drive to Elmwood and Summer to find an open store. The only milk was skim milk. Only a few dozen eggs left. Shelves are emptying. The store was rationing people to 1 dozen eggs and 3 gallons of milk. A lot of things are just gone. It took 4.5 hours to make the trip. The corners stores are charging $5 for a loaf of bread.

My brother and sister are still at the firehall. My mother has now joined them, as has my father. A group of tourists has been stuck there unable to get back to Toronto. When the main roads opened up they went to the store and were able to stock up on groceries but it was largely the same story there. Empty shelves and limits. They are unable to get home as are the tourists.

My sister and her coworkers are still working 12 hour shifts at work and sleeping across the street to keep the alarms monitored for the region. She is plowed out, but unable to get home to Hamburg.

My friends in the south towns are saying the snow has been stopped for almost a day and the main roads are finally getting cleared, but plow equipment is still getting stuck frequently, slowing efforts. Driving bans remain in effect. I took my friend a 3 mile hike through the snow to find a store only still open because the employees can't get home and are keeping ti open so people can get supplies. That is the Buffalo spirit.

My mother reports the Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, and NYC are sending aid. Pennsylvania is digging them out from the south, but that's it. Supplies still are nto flowing into the region and stockpiles are running low. The looming threat of flood is quickly becoming the priority. As heavy amounts of leaves were still on the ground when the snow fell workers are frantically attempting to open drains before the thaw. It is far from over.

The last death toll I hard was 12. That is 3x the number of Americans dead from ebola, but no one seems to care.

*Edit* The death toll is up to 15.
** The architect for the Frontier Central School District has closed all off the schools buildings until further notice. The amount of snow is 'well in excess' of the maximum capacity and no one is allowed to enter the buildings until further notice.
Trailer parks are being evacuated as mobile homes are collapsing.

[Dattebayo]

My sister got plowed out by the national guard.

You might wanna rephrase that.. lol

My mom is from a place near the area and used to talk about how her family regularly had to dig out from the second story when she was a kid.

[OriginalWheelman]

Well the snow is starting to melt and the ice / heavy snow is tearing down trees gutters and powerlines. They have not yet met the reported damage threshold for FEMA apparently. It doesn't matter that more damage is coming, a lot is unreported because people can't report it. I guess we need to rename FEMA. They are not Emergency Management. If they cared about managing an emergency they would be in Buffalo. They should be renamed Federal Emergency Show Up Too Late and Make a Mess of the Clean Up Agency.

Hamburg school district has also now closed their schools until December 1st. The south towns still are now plowed out. Driving bans are still in effect. People are still trapped. My whole family is still stuck where they have been since Monday night. For a few fo them, that means no access to a shower or clean clothes. The local WalMart has become a shelter and WalMart is literally giving things in the store away to people. They are doing everything they can to help. The store manager was going around finding people trapped in their cars and bringing them back to the store. It's still not over there.

** This is Flexovit in Angola. They make a large portion of Black and Decker's grinding wheels. Almost a total loss. Those things that look like crumpled tarps are metal roof segments.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=703905256371254

[OriginalWheelman]

FDNY is deploying 400 miles to come help.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10205301138396665

[OriginalWheelman]

https://www.facebook.com/news4buffalo/p ... 05?fref=nf

The situation in Hamburg is dire. FEMA isn't coming until the 3.2 million mark is hit according to Chuck Schumer. Hooray Bureaucracy. Let's hold the response until more people die, and more people are losing heat and power and running out of food. A friend of mine had to abandon her apartment because they were removing 5 gallons of water an hour from it already , and the snow is still melting.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Buffalo is bragging about how many of their streets are open, when it was all the work of the National Guard, and harder hit places like Hamburg are getting no attention. This is from the soldiers int he National Guard. They can't figure out why.

[OriginalWheelman]

The Amish have shown up to help dig out. Still no Feds.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Wow man, thanks for posting. This is insane!
I can't believe the feds are there yet. Has the governor/mayor declared a state of emergency?

[OriginalWheelman]

Wow man, thanks for posting. This is insane!
I can't believe the feds are there yet. Has the governor/mayor declared a state of emergency?

There has been a state of emergency for days now. The governor has been in the area and to his credit deployed the National Guard quickly and in force. The weather slowed them down for days and when it cleared there just isn't enough equipment there to get enough cleared in time. NY Senators have directly asked FEMA to respond and they have said NO.



**The town of Hamburg has announced they are no longer going to try and clear the snow. With the warn temp and rain arriving early, they are focusing their time on preventing as much flooding as they can.

[Bubba1]

Sounds like they should change the "Emergency" in FEMA to "Eventual".

[OriginalWheelman]

Yup. And Governor Cuomo is now blaming, wait for it, THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE for not predicting it would be this bad. His party beats the world over the head with climate change, well here it is, in action, f*** everything up, and they blame the weather man.

As the melt is now on people are finally able to get home. My Facebook is nothing but streams of pictures of down tree branches, destroyed properties, and damage to buildings. My brother and his GF have made ti to her Father's house on the lake, which despite the melt, still had 4 feet of heavy snow surrounding it. They are making their way into the house now. Driving bans are being lifted, but largely so people can come recover their cars if they can. The county has footed the $75k bill for the recovery service. Many people are finding their cars destroyed because snow removal equipment struck it while it was buried.

My friends are saying, since this is as bad as it ever gets in Buffalo, and the Feds refuse to come help, then what good are they?

[OriginalWheelman]

These guys are the ones that helped dig out my family today. 230 miles in a fire truck to come help.

*Cazanovia Creek is 20ft above normal already. About to bust it's banks. This is what happens when ice and water try to flow down a river.

http://www.wkbw.com/news/ice-floe-jamme ... ising-fast

[Jesda]

I've been through some crazy stuff up north. I'd rather endure this than a light dusting in Georgia.

If you're feeling suicidal, share I-75 with people in Atlanta during a half inch of snowfall.

[OriginalWheelman]

And this is what has happened since Friday.



I haven't heard from my family in a few days. I take that as a bad sign because that means they are out on too many emergency calls to keep me updated. I'm sure my Mom, Dad, and Brother will have a few interesting stories when I do hear from them.

*The last time I did speak to them they were doing a lot better. The fire company that came in to help took over emergency services in the district long enough for everyone to go home and get their first shower and real sleep in a week. Most only took 6-8 hours and were back in service. The Chief, Nick Mecca, has been running the show non stop for almost a week on about 10 hours of sleep.

** [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m6oXJcg7aM[/youtube]
Drone footage from inside the storm. This is West Seneca. They were not even the hardest hit area.

[Jesda]

Oh man, when that garage door opens to a wall of snow

[Dattebayo]

That guy has a pretty decent image stabilizer on that camera drone. I mean like movie quality stuff...

[OriginalWheelman]

Youtube does video stabilization now.

[OriginalWheelman]

*Update*
Big surprise, it hit the FEMA limit. FEMA is involved, and has been for a bit now, and by that I mean they are writing a bunch of checks. The disaster Reimbursement service it seems. And from what I'm hearing, they have paid businesses, and not homeowners.

[Ace2cool]

Quick thought: In bad weather like this, could they use drones to deliver supplies to those who need them? Or is the snow too think for a GPS signal?

[OriginalWheelman]

They can't really fly when the weather is bad, only in the luls. I heard about people scouting around and checking on people, but I don't think they have the lift to move supplies.

[themadscientist]

My sister got plowed out by the national guard.

Sorry to hear that.

[Ace2cool]

They can't really fly when the weather is bad, only in the luls. I heard about people scouting around and checking on people, but I don't think they have the lift to move supplies.

I was wondering more about these, not the regular little quad copters.

http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8037720011

[OriginalWheelman]

No idea. On a pure theory basis I'd have to assume they would need to be Cold-Weather prepped with a de-icing system. When the air is cold and your object is hot it melts the snow in the air. This forms a layer of water on the surface. Eventually the water becomes thick enough to ice on the outside over a layer of water ad that's when everything goes to hell. Traditionally supplies are delivered by snowmobile. There are a ton of them there. I wouldn't say most but a lot of families own one in the country areas. I know some families that own 4 or 5. In Eden, a driving ban simply means the bar parking lot is filled with snowmobiles instead of trucks.

There is a reason Buffalo is called The City of Good Neighbors.The people that weren't buried came and dug out those that were. They'll get paid back eventually.