New York reels as blizzard deaths rise

The death toll from a brutal blizzard in western New York state continued to rise on Monday, with many of the more than two dozen victims found on snowbanks or trapped in their vehicles.

Sustained blizzard conditions and frigid temperatures had taken at least 27 lives in New York by Monday. At least 57 people across the United States had died, NBC News reported.

Blizzard conditions persisted in parts of the northeastern United States, the stubborn remnants of a massive sprawl of extreme weather that gripped the country over several days, causing widespread power outages and travel delays. Storm-related deaths had been recorded in 12 states, according to media reports.

In New York state, authorities have described ferocious conditions, particularly in Buffalo, with hourslong whiteouts, bodies being discovered in vehicles and under snowbanks, and emergency personnel going car to car searching for survivors. Buffalo, a city in Erie County, was the epicenter of the crisis, buried under staggering amounts of snow.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz called the blizzard "the worst storm probably in our lifetime" and warned there might be more dead. Some people were stranded in their cars for more than two days, he said.

The blizzard roared across western New York on Friday and Saturday, stranding motorists, knocking out power and preventing emergency crews from reaching residents in frigid homes and stuck automobiles.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul toured the aftermath in Buffalo, her hometown, on Monday, calling the blizzard "one for the ages".

Emergency declaration

US President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration on Monday for the state of New York. Biden declared "an emergency exists" in the state and ordered federal assistance to aid state and local response efforts, according to the White House.

Relief is coming this week though, as forecasts call for temperatures to slowly rise, said Ashton Robinson Cook, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

"Nothing like what we had last week," said Cook, adding that the bomb cyclone had weakened. It developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, heavy winds and snow.

About 60 percent of the US population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians.

The storm of fierce snow squalls, howling wind and subzero temperatures forced the cancellation of more than 15,000 flights in the US in recent days, including nearly 4,000 on Monday, according to the tracking site FlightAware.

Agencies and Xinhua contributed to this story.