Elliott continues to leave victims in its wake and is already the deadliest storm in the last 50 years in the state of New York, even surpassing the 1977 storm that killed 29 people.
The bombogenesis currently ravaging the nation has claimed the lives of 31 people in the state of New York alone, according to Erie County's top policymaker, Marc Poloncarz.
Of the 31 victims, 17 died on the street from frostbite, seven because they had no heating, three were found lifeless in vehicles, three others died of heart problems and one because emergency services could not arrive in time due to the poor state of the roads.
Very sadly, the @ECDOH Medical Examiner has confirmed another 3 deaths from the Blizzard. Total deaths are now 31. Of these:
- 1 was from an EMS Delay;
- 17 were found outside;
- 3 were from shoveling/blowing cardiac events;
- 7 were from no heat; &
- 3 were in a vehicle. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/w0BOmezLJI— Mark Poloncarz (@markpoloncarz) December 27, 2022
No road travel allowed in Buffalo
"Very sadly, the coroner has confirmed another three deaths. The total is now 31," stated Poloncarz on Tuesday during a press conference during which he highlighted the joint work of the military and state police with the aim of getting citizens to respect the road prohibition in Buffalo.
In fact, the city of New York continues to restrict road traffic, although they claim that they are aware that many citizens are not complying. Nathan Marto, the city's public works commissioner told NBC News Now:
We still are finding a lot of people out and about just hampering our efforts as first responders. We need people to continue to stay patient, stay off the roads today, and as soon as we can, we will lift the driving ban in the city of Buffalo.
An increase in the death toll cannot be ruled out since, according to Poloncarz, clean-up efforts are still ongoing in Buffalo. In the rest of the country, according to NBC, 65 people have lost their lives as a result of winter storm Elliott.
In addition, the Erie County policymaker assured that more than 7,000 workers are working to restore power to Erie homes affected by the outages. The figure, he said, currently stands at 1,354 households, of which nearly 1,000 are in Buffalo.
National Grid now has 1,354 customers without power in Erie County, less than 1,000 of whom are in Buffalo.
— Mark Poloncarz (@markpoloncarz) December 28, 2022