President Joe Biden approved New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s emergency declaration request filed in response to the destructive winter storm that’s already claimed at least 28 lives in the state’s west since its beginning on December 23, 2022, the White House statement said on Monday night.
The statement further said that due to the emergency conditions resulting from the severe winter storm, President Biden also ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts.
It added that in line with Biden’s action, the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is now authorized to coordinate all disaster relief efforts aimed at providing appropriate assistance for required emergency measures and alleviating the hardship and suffering the emergency caused the local population.
Apart from the most devastating storm in Buffalo’s long storied history, the rest of the United States also was reeling from the blizzard that killed at least another two dozen people in other parts of the country.
The National Weather Service said that the ferocious winter storm will see up to 9 more inches of snow in some areas of western New York through Tuesday.
According to Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, the climate change crisis may have contributed to the intensity of the storm because the atmosphere can carry more water vapor, which acts as fuel.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service’s Buffalo office said in a forecast discussion Monday night that lingering cold air will continue to support accumulating lake snows east and northeast of both lakes overnight and Tuesday.
After that, significant warming is expected in a marked pattern change that will see high temperatures for most areas Friday through New Year’s Day since, as Ashton Robinson Cook, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, explains, the bomb cyclone – when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm – that has developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, has weakened.
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