National Guard called to dig Buffalo out from under snow

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The National Guard was called out Friday to help Buffalo dig out from a paralyzing, five-day storm that unloaded nearly 7 feet of snow -- an astonishing amount even for this city of legendary snowdrifts.

The record-breaking storm -- which rolled in on Christmas Eve after an extraordinarily mild November and December -- buried cars, shrubs, trash cans and mailboxes, reached windowsills, and swallowed up Christmas lawn displays. Buffalo's airport was closed, along with most major roads.

The storm finally blew out of town Friday, heading south, and the sun broke through in the afternoon.

Gov. George Pataki ordered the National Guard to help weary plow crews dig the city out. And Rep. Jack Quinn, R-N.Y., asked President Bush for federal aid.

"The president has nicknames for everyone and he calls me the big man from Buffalo. I'm 6-foot-5," Quinn said, "and I'm going to tell him the snow is over the big man's head."

Buffalo is accustomed to towering amounts of snow from "lake effect" storms coming off Lake Erie. But this was huge even by Buffalo standards. Large masses of cold air kept siphoning moisture from the lake and dropping it in bands of snow.

Among the records set:

The 83.5 inches of snow this month -- 82.3 of it since Monday -- makes this the snowiest month in Buffalo history. The old record of 68.4 inches had stood since December 1985.

The 35.4 inches of snow that fell from 6 a.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Friday ranks as the second-highest 24-hour total in Buffalo history. The record is 37.9 inches, Dec. 9-10, 1995.

The 45 inches on the ground at the National Weather Service's airport measuring station Friday eclipsed the 42-inch record set in January 1977. The reading was less than the total snowfall because some snow had melted or had become compacted.

Two deaths from storm

At least two deaths were blamed on the storm: An 83-year-old man in Cheektowaga died Friday when heavy snow collapsed his carport. And a woman was killed in an auto accident on an icy road in Lewiston.

Erie County Executive Joel Giambra said some 50 National Guard trucks and bucketloaders and an undetermined number of troops were being sent from Binghamton, Syracuse and Utica to supplement those in Buffalo after Pataki declared the city a disaster area.

"Fresh bodies, fresh troops if you will, will go a long way to helping us stay on top of this," Giambra said.