This was in the paper this morning:
State of emergency declared in Buffalo as snow continues to fall
The Associated Press
A state of emergency was declared in Buffalo and all of Erie County Friday after an overnight snowfall dropped more than a foot of new snow on top of the four and a half feet that has fallen since Monday.
With heavy snow still falling and an additional foot possible during the day, "basically, the city is shut down," Matt Brown, spokesman for Mayor Anthony Masiello, said early Friday.
The National Weather Service said that 68.5 inches of snow had fallen since Monday. In the 24-hour period ending 5 a.m. Friday, a near-record 33.6 inches had fallen.
After opening briefly early Friday to allow a flight to land, the Buffalo Niagara International Airport was closed until at least noon.
Driving was banned in Buffalo and several suburbs. Most major roadways, including 74 miles of the New York state Thruway, remained closed after being shut down Thursday. Only essential government, medical and emergency personnel were allowed on the roads.
In northern Wyoming County, some 20 miles east of Buffalo, 9.5 inches fell in four hours Thursday night.
Large masses of cold air were siphoning moisture from Lake Erie and dropping it as snow as the bands roved over Buffalo and its northern and southern suburbs, meteorologist Darin Figurskey said.
"These bands just keep going back and forth, back and forth," Figurskey said.
It's been a drastic change for a community that enjoyed its first-ever November without snow and recorded only 1.5 inches before Christmas Eve. Rural/Metro Medical Service in Rochester sent two ambulances, a plow truck, mechanic and four paramedics Thursday night to assist with 911 calls and other emergency work.
The Rochester Department of Environmental Services has sent one crew to help. A second 11-person crew is enroute to relieve the first one, said department director Ed Doherty. The two crews will stay in Buffalo and work alternating 12-hour shifts until the snow has been removed, Doherty said.
The Rochester crews are operating 11 pieces of equipment; five payloaders and six plows.
Two plows and four workers from the town of Irondequoit were dispatched to help Friday morning, said Don Milton, town commissioner of public works.
