comment: >
context: I'm curious what was different about this storm.  Buffalo is used to feet of snow but this seems to have caught everything off-guard. >
  
  Two days of 40+ mph winds with gusts over 70. There were times Friday and Saturday that I couldn't see my neighbor's house, conditions were so bad.
  So, the whiteout conditions, coupled with abandoned cars blocking the roads, prevented the snowplows from keeping up with the snowfall. >
  
  Wtf was the government supposed to do? Hurricane-like wind force, and 4+ feet of snow. It’s not like it was completely clear there either, Buffalo had gotten another huge snow storm not that long ago, and a little snow before this.
  That snow all has to go somewhere. they can’t just magically poof it away.
  I live in the capital region and I’ve seen constant streams of maintenance vehicles heading west over the past few days. There’s literally only so much that can be done. I just don’t understand what people expected. It’s not like Buffalo sat on its hands - they’re very prepared for blizzards. This was a (formerly) once in a generation type storm, one of the worst the city has ever seen. It’s not surprising it’s taking so long to clean up. It’s made worse by a bunch of morons who decided to ignore the travel ban, then got their cars stuck, blocking roads and making it hard for plows to clean up.
  The city is doing what it can. >
  
  As someone who lives here, the actual city itself (i.e. not the surrounding towns) does an awful job of clearing snow. The city in general is pretty poorly run, and always is the last municipality in the area to dig out after a snow storm. 
  What's going on right now is that (to nobody's surprise) the city failed to clear its own snow, and the county, state, and surrounding towns  are picking up its slack. 
  When you drive from Buffalo into one of its suburbs in the winter there's usually a visible line where the street starts being plowed, at the municipal boundary. >
  
  Yup, I went down Elmwood Ave yesterday to go to my parents. The stark difference between in street conditions in the maybe 50 to 100 feet as I crossed from village of Kenmore into the city of Buffalo was astounding, but unsurprising. >
  
  I live in Canada about an hour from Buffalo. We didn't get hit as hard, but I know Fort Erie by the border did. I'd love to know what the difference in responses were as I've heard nothing about a death toll here (I am sure there are a few though). I do know most things were cancelled on the Friday and we had the city have those with snowmobiles help stranded motorists. Neighbours took in stranded people, but surely the response can't have been that different. It took a few days for them to dig out which is normal for the amount of snow. >
  
  I shudder that this chaos & death occurred in a city that was probably the most prepared for this type of event (bad winter storm). This demonstrates how fragile the systems in place actually are. >
  
  Lol.  Fight the weather! Throw rocks at the sun.