Ontario sending help to Buffalo

100 pieces of snow removal equipment from Ontario will be crossing the border to help dig out the Buffalo area.

The snow has stopped falling there, but the death toll for the lake effect storm is rising. It now stands at 14. Just this afternoon, a man was found in his car buried under 15 feet of snow in Cheektowaga.

The big concern right now is removing the snow. Dozens of buildings have already collapsed and officials are warning home owners about potential floods. Jeanne has been trapped in her mobile home in Cheektowaga since Tuesday night, when her snow laden car port crashed onto her vehicle and blocked her front door.

“I thought she was already evacuated.”

Neighbours came to her rescue. They carried out her cat and helped her out the bedroom window.

“I couldn’t get out. I have a door in the storage room. I couldn’t open the front door.”

They’re shovelling the snow off Dan Sholkowski’s roof. He knew the roof was sagging when he couldn’t open the doors: “And then you could also hear sounds. (What did you hear?) Like cracking.”

They’re shovelling the snow all over the neighbourhood.

Roofs have crashed in. Buildings have collapsed.

Two elderly residents of a nursing home died yesterday afternoon when and 150 other residents were being evacuated.

The ceiling in the building was sagging. Beams were bent and walls cracking under the weight of snow piled up on the roof.

“We’ve had storms before. I’ve never seen anything like this. It was coming down inches an hour and you couldn’t keep up.”

Five thousand people and pieces of snow removal equipment are working around the clock.

Truck load after truck load of snow just from South Buffalo is being dumped here. Bulldozers push the snow as high as they can. The pile is five storeys high and growing.

While that’s a lot of snow, there is still so much more where that came from. 20 communities around Buffalo are still under a travel ban tonight. And people are not able to get in there to show you how bad it really is.

Roads and highways are starting to re-open to assist in the delivery of essential goods to the Buffalo area.

But many store shelves are empty. However, grocery delivery is considered an essential service, so delivery trucks are exempt from travel bans. But it may take some time to get other supplies to the area. And some gas stations are still without fuel.