The death toll from the winter storm hitting the United States has risen to 48, disrupting plans to celebrate Christmas in the country's worst storm in nearly four decades.
A powerful snowstorm that paralyzed western New York over the Christmas holiday killed at least 25 people, officials in Erie County, New York state said Monday, as facility repair teams faced a long day of digging in snow-covered areas around Buffalo.
According to officials, the high death toll is due to finding dead people in their cars buried under the snow, or finding those who had heart problems during snow removal attempts.
The snow storm in the region was described as the worst in 45 years, and it began last Friday evening and continued through Christmas weekend in western New York.
Buffalo is located on the outskirts of Lake Erie, near the Canadian border, and is among the areas hardest hit by the storm.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul (a native of Buffalo) said it was like "going to a war zone, and the sight of cars on both sides of the roads is shocking," as the snow reached 8 feet (2.4 meters), making the cold temperatures life-threatening, especially with power outages.
She added that the residents are still facing "a very dangerous situation that threatens their lives," and warned everyone to stay in their homes.
Erie County Sheriff Mark Poloncars said, "This isn't a Christmas any of us could hope for or expect, but try to celebrate Christmas as much as you can today... My deepest condolences go out to the families who have lost loved ones."
The storm led to the cancellation of more than 1,500 flights on Sunday, after about 3,500 flights were canceled on Saturday, and about 6,000 flights on Friday, according to the specialized tracking website, Flight Aware.
Snow on the road led to the temporary closure of some of the busiest roads, and the day before Saturday, about 1.7 million subscribers across the United States lost power.