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This Interstate Took the Worst Winter Storm In Generations on the Chin, Still Reeling

Interstate 90 is one of the most polarizing stretches of roadway in the United States. Stretching 3,021.2 miles (4,862.18 km) from Logan International Airport in Boston all the way to Seattle, the colossal intercontinental highway faced an altogether different problem this month. Something far more serious than endless tolls and potholes.
Interstate 90 Winter Storm Elliot 12 photos
Photo: WYRK Buffalo
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From the morning of December 21st to the evening of December 26th, a bomb-cyclone winter storm transformed into a weather incident that hasn't been seen for generations. This event was unofficially dubbed Winter Storm Elliott by the American Weather Channel. The storm pummeled vast portions of states situated along Interstate 90's coast-to-coast route and many other places.

For five agonizing days, the storm-ravaged areas of North America from Vermont to Michigan, Colorado, to British Columbia, and just about everywhere in between. Airports across the continent were grounded indefinitely, bus/train terminal service was also halted across the continent as the storm tore through communities.

Merciless winds, multiple feet of snow, and temperatures in excess of -40°F (-40°C) brought even the most up-to-date road infrastructure in America to the brink of total catastrophe. But one city along the I-90s route bore the brunt of the storm far worse than any other. A city with a death toll currently standing at 34 and counting. The underappreciated but charmingly scrappy city of Buffalo, New York.

Situated 375 miles (603 km) from New York City at the gateway to Appalachia, the City of Buffalo and its surrounding road infrastructure is battle-hardened by decades of previous winter storms. But even the most grizzled snow-plow veterans in all of Western New York were no match for what was about to hit them.

Buffalo Winter Storm
Photo: Buffalo News
The City of Buffalo's close proximity to the Great Lakes often creates winter storm conditions called the Lake Effect. Wherein super-chilled air rushing over the frigid Lakes Erie and Ontario interacts with warmer weather patterns over civilian populations nearby. Because of this, what began as two solid inches of rain over great sloths of the New York portion of I-90, dubbed the New York Thruway soon turned into a thin film of ice.

The ice was followed shortly after by a biblical onslaught of 49.2 inches (4.1 ft 1.25 m) of snow over the next five days. Stranding motorists in their cars, sometimes for days at a time. This type of accident was all too frequent for the length of the storm. The conditions utterly compromised even large 4x4s riding on chunky winter tires. So too were the plow trucks needed to clear the streets.

Whiteout conditions along the New York Thruway lead to multiple wrecks and accidents. Arterial state roads surrounding the federally-funded highway, like New York's historic State Route 5 along Lake Erie fared little better. As the storm triggered thunderstorm alerts as far south as New York City and Long Island, Pennsylvania, and New York's DOT gave the word two days before Christmas to close dozens of miles of I-90 across state borders as a safety precaution.

One portion of the closure covered a staggering 41 miles (66 km) of Interstate 90 from exit 53 in Buffalo to exit 59 in the City of Dunkirk, New York, near the Pennsylvania border. Even the New York State National Guard was on hand to aid a coalition of over 1000 men and women using hundreds of trucks and tens of thousands of tons of rock salt to get the vital Interstate back online.

Buffalo Winter Storm
Photo: Clayton News Daily
Snow crews from cities neighboring Buffalo, like Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica, joined state employees in the immense effort to clear enough of Interstate 90 and its surrounding roads, streets, and bridges to get traffic flowing again. Unable to use the Interstate to make it to the worst affected parts of Buffalo, these crews were forced to take state and local township roads to make the trip.

It took four agonizing days of round-the-clock work to finally open portions of the Interstate to automotive traffic again. But all was not yet back to normal. The worst North American winter storm of the 21st century claimed nearly three dozen in New York State. Many were attributed to more than 400 reports of emergency services being unable to reach citizens in critical need of care.

It was the first time in modern history that the City of Buffalo Fire Department trucks could not even leave their station houses. It was an utterly devastating natural disaster which, at least for Buffalo, was on par with the worst hurricanes and tornados this century. It will take weeks, if not months, for the last of the snowfall from this one storm to dissipate with the coming of spring.

Buffalo was just one of the countless cities across the length of I-90 that lost citizens to the wrath of this storm. States like Montana, South Dakota, and Minnesota also closed their major portions of I-90 either in part or in its entirety. It's hard to know for certain if a single storm has ever affected America's longest highway to this extent before. It's certainly unheard of today.

Buffalo Winter Storm
Photo: NYS National Guard
In New York, in the meantime, only the worst affected portions along I-90 of New York's Erie County remain closed. The City of Buffalo itself is also still under a driving ban for all non-essential workers. When the work is done and Interstate 90 re-opens entirely, the City of Buffalo can pat themselves on the back and rest easy knowing their citizens are made of sterner stuff than their city-slicker brethren nearly 400 miles away in the same state.

On behalf of autoevolution, we'd like to give these workers our deepest thanks.
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