The city of Buffalo has made progress clearing roads after heavy snowfall during the storm
A powerful winter storm that hit North America claimed more lives in the US state of New York, local authorities said.
At least 34 people have died in Erie County, including the city of Buffalo, County Executive Mark Poloncarz said Wednesday.
Authorities are still trying to identify the three victims.
The storm that swept across the United States over the holiday weekend killed at least 60 people in eight states.
There have been more deaths in Erie County in the past few days than in the infamous Buffalo snowstorm of 1977. According to the National Weather Service, 29 people died in this storm.
“It’s a terrible storm with too many fatalities,” Poloncarz said at a press conference on Wednesday morning.
But conditions in some of the hardest-hit US regions – including New York City – are starting to improve.
Milder conditions pose a risk of flooding in parts of the US
In Erie County, fewer than 1,000 households are currently without power, and 95% of residents should be restored by the end of the day, Poloncarz said.
The city of Buffalo, which received more than 1.2 meters of snow, has made progress clearing its roads, county officials said. At least 65% of city streets have at least one lane, although driving bans are still in place due to unsafe conditions, Poloncarz said.
Local Buffalo Niagara International Airport reopened at 11am local time (4pm GMT) after closing last Friday, although almost all flights scheduled for that day have been canceled or delayed, according to the airport’s website.
Train services in Buffalo are again operating on a limited schedule.
The U.S. National Guard is going door-to-door in county districts that lost power to conduct health checks as officials “fear” that some living alone may have died in the storm, Poloncarz said.
Due to rising temperatures and melting snow, the county is now preparing for the possibility of flooding, the county executive said.
Elsewhere in the US and Canada, residents are still dealing with the effects of the deadly winter storm, as well as new dangerous weather systems that have resulted in several fatalities.
States in the western United States and the Rocky Mountain region experienced strong winds and rain as a result of the “atmospheric river”, a long narrow channel of moisture in the atmosphere that can produce heavy rainfall.
According to the Weather Prediction Center, a wave of heavy rain or snow in the mountains is expected on Thursday in the western and southern United States, which may last until the end of the week.
On Tuesday, the system began flooding the western states of Washington and Oregon, where five people died in car accidents as a result of fallen trees during the storm, local Oregon State Police said.
In one case, Oregon State Police said a large tree fell on the roof of a car on Highway 26 in Clatsop County on Tuesday, killing 19-year-old driver Justin Nolasco Pedraza and two passengers, a four-year-old. year-old child and 41-year-old Bonifacio Olvera Nolasco. Rescuers found the bodies of all three at the scene.
More than 70,000 customers have been without power in Washington and Oregon since Wednesday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.
The storm is expected to “draw on over the coming weekend,” the Weather Forecast Center said.
Up to 15 cm of rainfall could fall in some areas.
Washington state capital Olympia recorded a record 18.4-foot (5.6-meter) high tide that officials said brought marine life to the city’s streets.
A local journalist shared videos on Twitter of jellyfish in flooded city streets and a resident trying to save the animals.
Heavy snowfall is also forecast for the mountainous regions of the Sierra Nevada, Cascades and Rockies as moist air flows east, the Weather Prediction Center said.
Meanwhile, some Canadian residents are still battling power outages as a result of the storm, including some 19,000 customers in the province of Quebec, utility provider Hydro-Québec said on Wednesday.
More than 10,000 customers in Ontario were still without power, according to energy provider Hydro One.
