Eight dead in storm as Buffalo braces for more snow

The Winchester Volunteer Fire Company has served as shelter for as many as 40 people since Tuesday. Up to 6 feet of snow cover the streets. Abandoned cars are barely visible under snowdrifts.

Fire trucks can't leave the station. Attempts by firefighters to get out in an SUV were futile. One medic hopped on a snowmobile to rush to a call. Other volunteers jumped on ATVs to reach a home where the roof was buckling under the weight of the snow.

Maria Odom's two cats and a dog were rescued from the house.

"I'm ready for it to end," Odom, 38, said of the extreme weather. "I've lived here my whole life and I've never seen anything like this."

Back at the fire station, driver Steve Randall's truckload of milk and eggs have served as the main source of provisions. Randall said he was stuck in his truck for nearly five hours before making his way to the firehouse, where people have been sleeping on tables to stay off the cold floor.

"We've been eating like kings for a while but now we're running out of food," he said. Firehouse occupants have been making quiche, served with milk and bread from a store across the street.

From the Tops grocery store nearby, people have been heading out into the snow by foot with bags of food. One man dragged groceries in a sled; another pulled his child along the snow in a laundry basket.

On Thursday afternoon, Erie County officials confirmed a roof collapse in a dining room at the 184-bed Garden Gate Health Care Facility in Cheektowaga. No injuries were reported and patients were being evacuated.

A year's snowfall in 3 days?

As if the situation weren't bad enough, Buffalo could see another 3 feet Thursday.

If the forecast holds, that's more than a year's worth of snow in just three days. In a typical year, Buffalo's snowfall totals about 7 feet, according to the National Weather Service.

The extreme conditions have led to tragedy in and around Buffalo. Eight people have died, including four who suffered cardiac issues while they shoveled snow and one who died in a car accident, Erie County officials reported. A man in his 60s had a heart attack while he tried to move a snow plow or a snow blower, Erie County deputy executive Richard Tobe said Thursday.

In Alden, New York, a 46-year-old man was found dead inside a car buried in 12 to 15 feet of snow. In Genesee County, Jack Boyce, a 56-year-old county employee, died after collapsing Tuesday morning while operating a snow blower outside the county sheriff's office, according to county manager Jay Gsell.

Trapped by drifts

Piled high and deep, the snow is a nightmare for south Buffalo residents Donna and Sean Yager. It took them almost five hours to free their car from its snowy confines.

Neighbor Rick Gayhart has lived in Buffalo all his life and said he's never seen snow like this before.

In the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga, Chrissy Hazard found herself trapped in her own home, surrounded by 5½ feet of snow.

She has plenty of company: her husband, a friend, seven children and some dogs.

It's close quarters when there's nowhere to go.

Everything's all right for now, she told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."

"We're good," she said. "We're buried in the house but we're doing OK."

Good neighbors

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and city officials Wednesday recounted stories of rescuers trudging around snowdrifts as high as houses to get people to hospitals, of fire stations turned into temporary shelters and police officers delivering special baby formula to a pair of infants.

"It is clear that we are one Buffalo," Brown said.

Buffalo prides itself as "The City of Good Neighbors," and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo noted that it has "come together and shown a real sense of community and neighbor helping neighbor, which is always good to see."

A sporting chance

Wednesday night's football game between the University of Buffalo and Kent State was postponed because the visitors' equipment truck didn't arrive on time. The game could be played Thursday or on another date, school officials said.

The NFL is keeping a close eye on the weather, too. The Buffalo Bills are scheduled to play the New York Jets on Sunday. The storms will be long gone by then, but Ralph Wilson Stadium is a mess, buried in an estimated 220,000 tons of snow.