Capital Region sends crew to Buffalo to help with deadly winter storm

A powerful winter storm has killed at least 28 people in New York.

Authorities are reporting 25 of those who died, lived in the Buffalo area, ranging in age from 22 to 93 years old.

Buffalo Resident Sulev Swede said the weekend storm got dangerous fast.

“It’s like someone turned a switch on and within a matter of a half hour to an hour you couldn’t see anything,” he said.

Swede said he’s lived in Buffalo his whole life, but this is the worst storm he’s seen in decades. The last storm he remembers was from 1977.

“However, this made it different because we didn’t necessarily have an overabundance of snow,” he recalls. “We did end up with a lot of snow, but the wind – when it kicked in – that’s what really wreaked havoc.”

Albany County Executive Dan McCoy held a press conference explaining how the county will help. It’s the worst snow they’ve had in 45 years, McCoy said, who added it’s tough for the people out there to work around the clock.

Albany County will send 23 people from the Department of Public Works along with 21 pieces of equipment – which include heavy large dump trucks – to remove the snow and maintenance vehicles to help with repairs, said McCoy.

Troops from the National Guard are already on the scene to assist in rescue efforts.

“The thing that is breaking their heart the most is when they’re clearing out cars and finding bodies in cars. Up to 25 people that have perished from this storm,” said McCoy.

Swede said they knew the weather was going to be bad, but nothing could have prepared them for this massive storm of destruction.