travel ban for erie county ny

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Update: Some travel ban lifted in Erie County, caution urged in Niagara County

Jan. 14—The travel ban for passenger and commercial vehicles in Erie County has been lifted in Grand Island, Tonawanda, Amherst, Clarence and Newstead.

Central Erie County and many Southtowns will remain under a full travel ban until further notice, and the Thruway remains closed to commercial traffic between Exit 46 and the Pennsylvania State Line. Drivers are advised to stay off the roads and avoid unnecessary travel.

There are no travel restrictions in Niagara County, with emergency officials urging drivers to use caution. "There are places in the county that got very little snow but others that got quite a bit. Plows from the various agencies are out trying to clean up what we have seen so far," a message from the Niagara County Emergency Services Facebook read late Sunday morning.

New Yorkers in Western New York are being urged to stay home throughout the duration of the storm. Travel in impacted areas could be dangerous at times throughout the evening due to blizzard-like conditions.

"Our crews have been working around the clock to keep the roads clear and New Yorkers safe, and I am grateful that the vast majority of New Yorkers heeded our ban and stayed off the road," Gov. Kathy Hochul said. "As conditions are improving int eh north towns we are lifting the travel ban there, but if you do not have to travel today, stay home and let our crews continue to work. If you are in central Erie County and much of the Southtowns, continue to stay home."

Currently, there are 25,569 outages statewide, including 18,518 outages in the Mid-Hudson region, 90 in Western New York and 42 in the North Country. Utility crews have kept up with the level of power outages incurred to date, and remain on standby to restore any additional power outages if and when they occur.

The travel ban was lifted Sunday morning in the Towns of Collins, North Collins, Concord, Sardinia, Colden and Holland, as well as in the Villages of North Collins and Springville.

Heavy lake effect snow will continue off the eastern shores of both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario throughout Sunday, with snowfall rates of 2 to 3 inches possible, as well as thundersnow in the heaviest parts of the bands. Winds will begin out of the southwest Sunday morning gusting at 35-40 mph and will increase to 40-50 mph this afternoon.

Tonight, snowfall rates are expected to remain at 2 to3 inches per hour in the heaviest bands, but wind gusts will diminish to 30 mph. In Western New York, the band is expected to oscillate near or just south of Buffalo for most of the night, while in the North Country, the band is expected to oscillate between the central Tug Hill plateau and Watertown. For a complete listing of weather alerts and forecasts, visit the National Weather Service website at https://alerts.weather.gov .

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Final travel ban in Erie County to be lifted this afternoon

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The final travel ban in Erie County - for the city of Lackawanna - will be lifted at 1 p.m. this afternoon.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz says main and secondary streets are in good condition but, according to Mayor Anette Iaffalo, crews need more time to clear some side streets. The county has provided additional equipment to help with this process.

A travel ban in Cheektowaga ended at 9 a.m., while a travel ban for the city of Buffalo and the rest of the county was lifted at 6 a.m.

The snow ban moved north of the Southtowns last night, allowing for crews and snow shovelers to work quickly to clear the inside and outside of Highmark Stadium ahead of this afternoon's Bills-Steelers Wild Card game, which was rescheduled from 1 p.m. Sunday to 4:30 p.m. today.

Shovelers are still needed! Erie County just gave the all clear for people to travel to the stadium to help out. Just use Rt. 20 or Abbott to get there. @WKBW https://t.co/7pSgCMg0my — Taylor Epps (@taylor_epps_) January 15, 2024

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Travel ban lifted in Erie County as road conditions improve, warmer weather settles in

A travel ban has been lifted in New York’s Erie County, days after it was put into place as a deadly blizzard swept across the region, at times reducing visibility to zero.

The ban, which was implemented Friday, expired at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, officials said.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told reporters Wednesday night that the roads were in good enough condition to lift the ban.

“It has been 6 days,” Brown said. “Some people have not been able to restock groceries, to restock medications, to get to medical appointments, and being able to lift the travel ban safely now will allow people to do those important things.”

Most streets in the city are passable, Brown said, and he expected crews to have made a pass down the center of every residential street by the end of the night.

Though the ban has been lifted, a travel advisory was in place for Erie County as cleanup continues and a county-wide state of emergency remained. Brown asked people to be cautious and avoid driving unless necessary.

More than 450 pieces of equipment were on Buffalo streets plowing and hauling snow, and many traffic signals were still not working, he said.

The storm dumped upwards of 20 inches of snow in parts of New York — including nearly 52 inches at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, according to the National Weather Service.

The powerful storm plunged much of the United States into a deep freeze, creating life-threatening conditions as more than 1 million homes and businesses were left in the dark, and wreaking havoc on flight schedules during the busy holiday travel week.

At least 76 people died in the storm, according to an NBC News tally. Erie County accounted for 37 of the deaths, 29 of which were in Buffalo.

Weather-related deaths were also reported in Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, Michigan, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Illinois and Vermont.

In Buffalo, officials said it was possible the number could rise.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Wednesday night that police have cleared the backlog of calls relating to welfare checks, stranded motorists and reports of bodies.

Search and rescue teams were returning Thursday to check locations where bodies had been reported but could not be confirmed — either because of the amount of snow or the vagueness of location, Gramaglia said.

"We believe there were some credible 911 calls that contained more information ... low single digit numbers, that's again why we're going to concentrate our efforts on hitting those areas," he told reporters.

In Erie County, 17 of the people who died in the blizzard were found outside and four were in a vehicle , according to County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

Several people died because of a delay receiving emergency services or from cardiac events related to shoveling or blowing snow. Of the deaths, nine were people who died because they had no heat in their homes, he said.

Poloncarz said in a tweet Wednesday night that 500 National Guard members have conducted nearly 850 welfare checks on residents who had longterm power outages.

Power was being restored to New York, and by early Thursday, about 400 customers in the state were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us .

In Buffalo, where more than 20,000 customers were without power at one point during the storm, only three had no electricity Wednesday night, according to Brown, the mayor.

On Wednesday, city offices, facilities and roadways opened, as temperatures rose into the 40s across parts of New York.

Buffalo Niagara International Airport, which has been closed since Friday , reopened Wednesday.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday night that all major state highways in western New York, including the Erie County portion of Interstate 190 and several state routes, would reopen at midnight.

“I am extremely grateful to all the highway maintenance workers, first responders and emergency service staff who continue to work tirelessly to help their fellow New Yorkers," Hochul said in a statement .   

The temperature is expected to continue climbing to the low-50s in the Buffalo region by Friday, and will help melt the accumulated snow, according to the National Weather Service .

Claire Cardona is a breaking news editor for NBC News Digital.

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All travel bans lifted in Erie County; government offices reopening Tuesday

The state of emergency is still in effect in Erie County, but there are signs that things are slowly returning to normal.

On Tuesday, all county government offices will reopen after being forced to close because of the weather, however, many schools, including the Buffalo city school district, will remain closed. A full list of closures can be seen here .

On Monday it was announced that a FEMA emergency declaration has been approved for 11 counties in Western New York:

• Cattaraugus
• Genesee 
• St. Lawrence 

The declaration means funding will be available to help with recovery efforts across Western New York.

The travel ban that originally went into effect on Thursday, and has been continuously modified, has finally been completely lifted in Erie County. There are still travel advisories in effect in many areas.

As of 5 PM, the Buffalo has lifted the final travel ban in Erie County. About half the county remains in a travel advisory, yellow on the attached map: Buffalo, Lackawanna, West Seneca, Elma, Marilla, Hamburg, Orchard Park, Aurora, Wales, Evans, Eden, Boston, Colden, & Holland. pic.twitter.com/DG99FNxjTv — Erie County, NY (@ErieCountyNY) November 21, 2022

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Travel Ban Lifted for North Towns in Erie County

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The Buffalo community has once again been crippled by a lake effect snowstorm. This one being harsh due to the powerful winds, which has caused intense whiteout conditions and heavy snowfall across the region.

The hardest hit areas include South Buffalo, West Seneca, Hamburg, Orchard Park, East Aurora, Angola, etc. However, the intense snow band has only spent a period of time areas north of Buffalo (mainly overnight and into the very early morning hours).

Because of that and the lesser snowfall totals, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the north towns travel ban is being lifted.

That includes Grand Island, Amherst, Clarence, Tonawanda and Newstead. Travel advisories are still in place.

However, the travel ban is still in effect for the City of Buffalo and the south towns, which includes Orchard Park, which is where the Bills playoff game will be played on Monday afternoon at 4:30 pm.

Hochul says that the conditions, while not perfect, will not involve life-threatening conditions on Monday afternoon like Sunday and Saturday. It will be very cold, breezy but no heavy snow and overly strong winds.

Here’s where travel bans are still in place.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz says the game will be held as scheduled but that not all the stadium lots will be cleared of snow in time. He highly encourages carpooling, as there will be less parking spaces available than usual.

This is all good news. However, the snow band is still pummeling the south towns and the event is not over yet. Hopefully, the ban for the south towns will be lifted tonight or very early on Monday morning, but Poloncarz wasn’t optimistic it would come tonight.

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Welcome to Erie County, NY

Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz

Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz » POLONCARZ ISSUES TRAVEL ADVISORY FOR ERIE COUNTY

POLONCARZ ISSUES TRAVEL ADVISORY FOR ERIE COUNTY

Modified: January 9, 2024 10:19am

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Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz has issued a travel advisory for all of Erie County as a winter weather event is forecast to bring damaging winds to the region from today through tomorrow. The National Weather Service forecast calls for wind gusts of up to 70 mph possible near Lake Erie and from 60-65 mph for the rest of the area. Winds will be out of the southeast, instead of the normal southwest wind direction, which is expected to cause greater than normal tree damage. Residents and motorists should be aware of the risk of downed trees and power lines.

Road and Vehicle Safety:

• If a stop light is out, treat it as a 4-way stop. Go through the intersection with caution.
• Always assume power lines are live. NEVER drive over downed wires. If you are driving in an area with downed trees or utility poles, slow down, scan the road and stay away from any debris that may be caught in a downed wire.

Prevent Carbon Monoxide (CO) Poisoning:

• Never use a generator inside your home or garage, even if doors and windows are open.
• Only use generators outside, more than 20 feet away from your home, doors, and windows.
• Don’t heat your house with a gas oven.
• Seek immediate medical help if you suspect CO poisoning and are feeling dizzy, light-headed, or nauseated.
• For more information: https://www.dhses.ny.gov/generator-safety

Always a good idea:

• Keep devices charged
• Stay up-to-date with weather forecasts
• Check on your neighbors
• For more winter weather preparedness tips: www.erie.gov/winter

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