Buffalo bomb cyclone dig-out gets assist from Long Island crews

Dozens of Long Islanders will spend Christmas week away from their families, providing desperately needed help to the residents of Buffalo, who are enduring a massive winter storm that has left at least 28 dead and thousands more stranded for days in their homes or vehicles without power.

Parts of Western New York, including Erie County, remain buried by up to four feet of snow, hurricane-force winds and whiteout conditions that paralyzed emergency response efforts. 

On Monday morning, 18 Nassau employees from the Department of Public Works and Office of Emergency Management, along with Chief Deputy County Executive Arthur Walsh, began a nine-hour trek to Buffalo to help with the rescue and recovery operations, said County Executive Bruce Blakeman. They’re also bringing payloaders, trucks, tractor-like vehicles, a large generator and an air pump, Blakeman said.

A 'humanitarian mission'

The staff and resources, Blakeman said, were sent at the request of Gov. Kathy Hochul and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, who developed a “wish list” of items needed for the region.

“Our workers volunteered for this mission,” Blakeman said, adding Nassau will deal with potential reimbursement at a later date. “Morale is very high. They knew that they’re on a humanitarian mission. And they’re very excited about it. I told them that they’re going to work very, very hard, but that they would get a lot of self-satisfaction from knowing that they made a real difference in people’s lives.”

John Imbriale of Hicksville, who works in logistics for Nassau OEM, was expected to be off this week, “recharging my battery” with his wife and two children.

“But I got a phone call from [OEM] Commissioner [Richard] Corbett that they needed volunteers to go to Buffalo to help out with their efforts,” Imbriale said. “I said ‘absolutely.’ During [Superstorm] Sandy, other counties helped us out … People are in need and we have the resources and logistics to help them.”

Nassau’s staff will remain in the area through Friday — potentially longer if needed — and sleep in Rochester, which was not as badly hit by the storm, Blakeman said. Rochester is about 74 miles east of Buffalo.

Two dozen state employees from Long Island were also dispatched to the region to assist in the effort, according to a Hochul spokeswoman.

They include 13 snowplow operators from Riverhead, along with one supervisor; four operators from Syosset; two traffic signal technicians from Hauppauge; one operator each from Melville and Central Islip; and two mechanics: one from Central Islip and another from North Merrick. 

Suffolk County Fire Rescue Services and Police Department dispatchers assisted Erie County 911 with triaging calls that had been backlogged throughout the duration of the storm, a county spokeswoman said.

On Long Island, crews are still cleaning up from the flooding from last week’s storm. 

“Sweeping off, brushing off, cleaning off, that kind of simpler stuff might still have to occur in simpler spots, but there’s nothing … obstructing a roadway from access in any way,” said Ryan Murphy, the Town of Southampton’s emergency manager.

Farther inland in Freeport, Mayor Robert Kennedy said the village’s cleanup is essentially complete, although many private vehicles sustained serious flood damage.

Much of the flooding, Kennedy said, could have been prevented if there was a surge barrier near the water as the village has recommended for years. 

“Six million dollars were spent in feasibility studies over the past six years,” the mayor said, adding that Freeport has sustained $250 million in damages from flooding since 1980. “It’s been 10 years since Superstorm Sandy, and nothing has been done. That’s why we had another flood here and lost all of these vehicles.”

'This is a horrible situation'

The blizzard roared through Western New York on Friday and Saturday, stranding motorists in their vehicles, knocking out power for thousands and preventing emergency crews from reaching stranded residents. Deaths have been attributed to the storm nationwide.

An additional four to eight inches of snow could fall by Tuesday afternoon in the Buffalo area, the National Weather Service said on Monday afternoon, further complicating the already challenging recovery operation

“This is a horrible situation,” Poloncarz said at a news conference Monday. “This is not helpful as we’re trying to recover and clear off streets and get into areas that still have not” been plowed.

Four years ago, Marcy and Ian Abramsky moved from Wantagh to Clarence, a town 20 minutes northeast of Buffalo.

The couple and their daughters, Kelsi and Jamie, have been stuck inside since Friday with 49 inches of snow outside — so high that Ian Abramsky uses a window to get into their backyard to clean off their generator, which is their primary source of electricity since their power went out during the weekend.

“It’s been 80 mile per hour winds,” Marcy Abramsky said. “You could hear the house moving. When you go outside there’s zero visibility.”

Ian Abramsky said Buffalo’s emergency management system is typically capable of clearing a few feet of snow within a day or two. This storm, he said, is different.

“In the four years we’ve been living here, we’ve never seen anything like it," he said.

With Jean-Paul Salamanca

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.