Military police to enforce driving ban in snowy Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. — State and military police are being sent to keep people from driving in snow-choked Buffalo, officials said Tuesday as the region kept counting fatalities and strove to recover from its deadliest storm in at least two generations.

County Executive Mark Poloncarz said police would be positioned at entrances to Buffalo and at major intersections to enforce a ban on driving in New York’s second-most populous city.

“Too many people are ignoring the ban,” Poloncarz, a Democrat, said at a news conference. Meanwhile, the prohibition on driving was lifted in suburban areas.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown’s office announced seven additional storm-related deaths Tuesday. That brought the city’s total to 27, along with at least seven suburban fatalities.

The toll surpasses that of the historic Blizzard of 1977, blamed for killing as many as 29 people in a region known for harsh winter weather.

In the Buffalo area, the storm raged through on Friday and Saturday and dropped over 4 feet of snow in some places. The winter blast stranded some people in cars for days, shuttered the city’s airport and left some residents shivering without heat.

The area was expecting a bit more snow Tuesday, when the National Weather Service forecast as much as 2 inches in Erie County, which includes Buffalo.

Erie County Emergency Services Commissioner Dan Neaverth Jr. said crews are keeping an eye on the forecast for later in the week, when projected warmer weather raises the threat of flooding as the snow melts.

“We are a little bit concerned,” he said.