Irish Examiner view: Deaths during blizzard in US due to a collision of nature and fate

It appears that under-resourced public services in the US were unable to deal properly with the historic snow and ice storm

13-year-old Angelo Milioto shovelling snow away around his home in Buffalo, NY, as a clean-up gets underway after the blizzard hit New York counties particularly hard. Picture: Joseph Cooke/The Buffalo News/AP

As America roils from historic blizzard conditions across the country and most particularly in and around the city of Buffalo in upstate New York where dozens of lives have been lost, questions are understandably being asked as to why the authorities did not take further measures to protect citizens.

Buffalo is no stranger to snow, but this storm was forecast a long way out and it was widely known it was going to be a monster. 

The city is part of Erie County and officials only issued a travel ban just before 9am last Friday, giving motorist just a 41-minute heads-up on what was about to happen.

The storm has so far taken 37 lives in Erie County alone — many were people simply caught outside, many others were in their cars. 

But the combination of a historic blizzard, a huge difficulty in persuading people desensitised to winter weather to change their plans, and a lack of emergency management personnel and equipment led to so many deaths.

Buffalo is not a rich city — an estimated 27% live in poverty — and the storm hit last Friday when many were getting their pay cheque and planning to spend it on food and presents for Christmas. As a result, many of those people stuck in vehicles shouldn’t have been there. 

A collision of nature and fate conspired to take many lives and, it appears, under-resourced public services could do little about it.

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