ENOUGH ALREADDY! BUFFALO'S SNOWVEMBER

摘要

Snow has a suffocating quality about it, where copious amounts of falling snow become not only a hazard to those out in it, but bring about a paralyzing effect on those thought safe in their homes. All one can do is watch and cry "enough already!" Once buried, movement comes to a halt. Slowly life again appears, as shovels are reached for and the digging-out begins. This was the case on November 18-19, 2014, and again on November 20-21, 2014, when the area in and around Buffalo, New York, with a population of nearly a half million, was smothered by back-to-back lake effect snow events-events that "kept on giving" to the tune of up to seven feet of snow. The accumulated snow led to travel bans, thruway closures (I-90), abandoned vehicles, heroic survival stories, "Good Samaritan" acts, numerous roof collapses, a call-out to the National Guard, and, sadly, 14 deaths. The storm was given a five-flake rating (the highest rating for a lake effect storm) by the Buffalo Office of the NWS. It was initially referred to as "the Knife" by the Erie County Executive-a name coined to describe how the storm cut through the heart of the region, but later the name "Snowvember" was used by the mass media in reference to these collective lake effect events. In subsequent weeks, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officially declared the impacted parts of Western New York a "major disaster."