National Guard joins in cleanup


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Most city, suburban schools will be closed for remainder of week

By PHIL FAIRBANKS and SHARON LINSTEDT
News Staff Reporters
10/18/2006

Click to view larger picture

Derek Gee/Buffalo News
National Guard troops arrived in force Tuesday to contribute to cleanup efforts. Here they push debris off North Ellicott Street in Williamsville.

Click to view larger picture

Derek Gee/Buffalo News
National Guard Sgt. Doug Mattingly, left, tackles some fallen tree limbs as troops clean up storm debris Tuesday on North Ellicott Street in Williamsville.




The National Guard will double its presence in Erie County today as homeowners await word on whether the federal government will come to their rescue and pay for tens of millions of dollars in uninsured storm damage.
The arrival of federal disaster aid and 150 more Guard troops would represent a major step forward in a recovery effort that has left 130,000 homes still without power and much of Erie County clogged with tons of downed trees and limbs.

Day Five of the massive cleanup ended Tuesday with the announcement that most city and suburban schools will remain closed all week, and the news that the storm-related death toll is now 13, including a fourth case of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Most of the deaths are believed to be from heart attacks or accidents linked to the worst October storm in Buffalo's history. In one case, a 65-year old woman died after her oxygen machine lost power.

Homeowners, meanwhile, are hopeful the Federal Emergency Management Agency will come to their rescue today and declare the four-county region a natural disaster area, triggering tens of millions of dollars in relief.

"There's a reasonable chance we'll know something [today]," FEMA Regional Director Stephen Kempf Jr. said Tuesday. "There's no set timetable once a request or a declaration is made, but they are handled as quickly and expediently as possible."

Kempf stopped short of predicting what FEMA would do but acknowledged the severity of the storm's wrath on Erie, Niagara, Genesee and Orleans counties.

"My gut feeling is these people have been knocked around by Mother Nature and face a difficult task cleaning up and getting back to normal," he told The Buffalo News.

FEMA already has approved $5 million in emergency aid to local governments, but that money would increase dramatically if the October Surprise storm is declared a federal natural disaster.

If that happens, local residents could be compensated for such storm-related expenses as temporary housing and property repairs not covered by insurance.

While FEMA deliberated, the region's two major utilities continued to make inroads on the hundreds of thousands of people still without heat and electricity.

By late Tuesday, 100,000 National Grid customers and 30,000 New York State Electric & Gas customers were still without power.

The communities with the greatest number of remaining homes without power are Buffalo, Kenmore and Amherst. "We continue with a huge number of workers in the field dedicated to this task," National Grid President William Edwards said. "We continue to do all we can to lighten up all of the neighborhoods throughout Western New York."

As they have in recent days, National Grid executives said it could be Sunday before everyone has heat and electricity restored.

"In most areas, we think there will be customers still without power into the weekend and again likely through the weekend," Edwards said.

The other major aspect of the recovery, the street-by-street cleanup of fallen tree branches, will get some much-needed help from the National Guard today.

At the request of County Executive Joel A. Giambra, the state is sending another 150 troops to the county, bringing the total on the ground to 300. The county also is hiring private contractors to help with the cleanup effort.

"I made this decision because we have reached the limit of public resources," Giambra said of the need for contractors. "We have to move with more help, and we have to do it immediately."

Most of the Guard troops, using dump trucks and high lifts, began removing debris Tuesday in Williamsville, one of the hardest hit areas, but the requests from other communities began mounting.

"If you see the National Guard, tell them where Lancaster is," Supervisor Robert H. Giza said. "We requested them. I don't know where they are."

Giza said he requested help from the National Guard on Saturday and called the county emergency operations center Tuesday to check on the Guard's progress.

"They said they're working on it," he said. "I don't know what that means."

And Lancaster is not alone. Several other towns, including Cheektowaga and West Seneca, also requested help from the Guard.

Buffalo accepted another form of outside help Tuesday - 14 state troopers who will direct traffic at intersections with malfunctioning stop lights.

"We have them working some of our more dangerous traffic intersections, assisting us with traffic and movement of people," Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson said.

Gipson said the troopers also will patrol certain "main streets such as Bailey Avenue, Hertel Avenue and sections of Main Street in an effort to try to make sure we do not have any increase in lawlessness or criminal activity."

The risks of driving through unlighted intersections hit home with Giambra Tuesday. The county executive was involved in a car accident on Main Street in Amherst at an intersection with a traffic signal that had lost power in the recent storm.

At about 8:30 or 8:45 a.m., the sport utility vehicle carrying Giambra and his driver was attempting to make a left turn into the eastbound lanes on Main Street.

Giambra said the intersection had a nonworking signal, and his SUV was struck on the driver's side door by a vehicle traveling westbound on Main Street.

Giambra, who said he was wearing his seat belt, hit his head on the dashboard but otherwise was not injured. His driver was treated and released from Erie County Medical Center.

"I'll recover," the county executive told The News, joking that he was fortunate only his head was hit.

One of the greatest fears in the aftermath of last week's lake effect storm was the potential for serious flooding because of melting snow.

On Tuesday, there was no street flooding reported in the major suburbs, but officials in Williamsville were keeping a close eye on Ellicott Creek.

Mayor Mary Lowther said the creek's dam gates had already been removed to allow debris to flow through, only to find the creek blocked again by downed trees. She said county workers were coming out with cranes to clear the debris.


Reporters Steve Watson, Brian Meyer, Barbara O'Brien, Niki Cervantes and
Elmer Ploetz contributed to this story.
e-mail: pfairbanks@buffnews.com

ZeroSoul said:

The first two pictures are from the Buffalo News, a friend took the others on Sunday and Monday. Other neighborhoods were hit much harder than this.

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shellyevon said:

Oh man, I know what it's like to be without power and stuck in your house. I had just moved to Ottawa when the 1998 Ice Storm hit. I was without power for 8 days and it was BRUTAL. No heat, no water, no lights. We cooked on the top of our woodburning stove, and melted snow on it to fill the toilets with water so we could use the bathroom.




Everything was literally frozen in time. I think it was the worst natural disaster in Canadian history.

Glad you're ok, shellyevon.

That looks like a right bad do, our Shell So glad you and your loved ones have kept well. Stay safe, mate

oh man, that reminds me of an ice storm that happened in my hometown back in 1991--the weather shifted real fast within hours too, which was the real freaky thing. we didn't have power for a few days, so we had to use these cruddy kerosene lamps for light. there was this huge tree in front of the apartment we lived in at the time, and i was afraid that it would've fallen over from the weight of the ice on it and crashed through our place (we lived on the top floor).

stay safe!

JustErin said:

Holy hell....I remember those pics.....we were out in a lot of the communities with our generator sets providing power to the dairy farms....and the police stations and what not...I'll never forget that....

JustErin said:

Thanks Erin, we had that 1998 storm too, but not as bad as you got hit.
Hope we're not in for another brutal winter.

It all would be beautiful, if it weren't so tragic and horrible.

Bush's response time is a lot faster, this time...

senik said:

Thanks Hon, went for a walk with Stellar today, they've made a lot of progress but there are still some streets we can't go down and lines down,We're being careful.

shellyevon said:

Good old Stellar Blue will keep you warm with cuddles

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Thanks, yeah, this was freaky fast too. It was really harsh. I would have loved having kerosene lamps. My Mom has them but I couldn't get over to her place.
We lost a lot of trees,every street is lined corner to corner with huge branches. My sister had a huge willow tree that keeled over roots and all.
It's really sad.

senik said:

I put one of Noah's old sweaters on her to keep her warm, she hates being cold. She was really missing those walks.

ThreadBare said:

Yeah, I was surprised he was so fast. This storm wasn't pretty like an ice storm, it was over ankle deep water covered in slushy snow, YUCK! Now the snow is mostly gone and it's mud, leaves, and branches everywhere.

shellyevon said:

Hang in there, sis!

ThreadBare said:

PurpleJedi said:

Peca deals with Buffalo mess

By MIKE ZEISBERGER -- Toronto Sun

When Michael Peca uttered the comment, "It's a mess," yesterday, he was not referring to his ailing body.

He was, in fact, talking about the ravaged streets and neighbourhoods near his Buffalo-area home.

As Peca and his family drove down from Toronto to inspect their house on Sunday, the right hip flexor muscle injury he aggravated in New Jersey last week was the furthest thing from his mind.

It just didn't seem like a pressing issue. Not when so many people in western New York were struggling to find ways to keep warm and salvage their spoiling food in the wake of the devastating snow storm last Thursday that left a significant chunk of the region still without electricity.

"It was a disaster area," Peca said. "It looks like a hurricane swept through there. There are trees big and small that are snapped in two that are just on top of houses and cars and roads and power lines.

"It was good for us to get down there and see it because you don't really get the gist of it from the newspaper or TV. It's a disaster area and you can see why it was declared a natural disaster because there still are a lot of people without power. Fortunately the power in our house came back (Sunday) so the cleanup can get started.

"When we were without power, we couldn't get people into the house because there was a driving ban and people couldn't get out of their driveways."

Peca feels the clean-up effort will be "a slow tedious process."

"It'll take a long time to clean up, what with the debris from trees and the damage the trees caused," he said. "The contractors will be busy, and so will the insurance companies."

A week later, frazzled


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Storm's impact weighs heavily on residents

By MAKI BECKER and GENE WARNER
News Staff Reporters
10/19/2006
Dennis C. Enser/Buffalo News
Above, West Side mother Regenia Ivey, 9 months' pregnant, heats water to warm her home, while son Leon McCrimager, 14, a diabetic, worries about his insulin in a refrigerator that lacks power. At left, power lines in Raymond Lemke's backyard in Lackawanna sag under broken branches.

A week into the storm, tens of thousands of its victims are reaching their limit.
Rich or poor, city or suburban, regardless of race, people are finding that the storm has touched everyone. Neighbors have come together, with chain saws and generators. For that, most people are grateful.

But for those who are worrying about where their next meal is coming from, neighborly good will isn't cutting it - and they are desperate for help. Here are their stories:



West Side:
Potomac Avenue

Regenia Ivey, who is 9 months' pregnant with her fifth child, warmed her apartment Wednesday by boiling water on her gas stove.

With only potatoes, onions and half a jar of mayonnaise left, Ivey worried about feeding her family, especially her 14-year-old son, Leon McCrimager, who is diabetic and whose blood sugar level is rising.

"Everybody is doing what they can," Ivey said as she showed a reporter her dark, near-empty refrigerator. "I just need some food for the children."

Up and down Potomac, working-class and poor families were beginning to panic.

Their last dollars went to replenish food that had gone bad, and Wednesday they were losing the replacement food, too. "I don't know what to do," said a frustrated Lynn Lockett, 38, a mother of three.

Shortly before noon, Antoinette Williams announced to her neighbors that the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen at Lafayette Presbyterian Church was open and shouted over to her neighbors to pile their children into her car.

"Put on any clothes you can find and get out here," Lockett bellowed to her children.



Tonawanda:
Deerhurst area

Tornadoes often single out trailer homes. Hurricanes have been known to target low-lying areas. But last Thursday's storm didn't discriminate on any socioeconomic basis.

Among the hardest-hit neighborhoods was one of the area's most picturesque, the Deerhurst-Doncaster-Leicester area of stately brick and stone homes in the Town of Tonawanda.

"Mother Nature doesn't play favorites," said Peggy Brill of Doncaster Road. The Deerhurst area, between Colvin Boulevard and Delaware Avenue, was hard-hit because many of its trees are mature maples and sycamores.

"We're all so sad," said Lisa Wright, whose Doncaster Road home was still without power Wednesday. "This neighborhood has so many beautiful, mature trees. A lot of us went out Thursday evening, literally shaking the trees, getting brooms and sticks, trying to get the weight of the snow off the trees."

But then these neighbors heard the sounds of branches cracking all night long.

While they bemoaned their tree loss, residents in this neighborhood were able to put the storm in perspective.

"The storm didn't discriminate, but it also makes us realize what people went through with Katrina," said John Helwig, a Buffalo teacher who has been helping those across the street without power.


East Side:
Broadway area

Jake Page, 43, of Wyoming Avenue, sat down Wednesday to his first hot meal since the storm hit.

"We've been eating sandwiches and potato chips," said Page, who delighted in a plate of pot roast, mashed potatoes and bread at the Response to Love Center at St. Adalbert Church. "We had to go to the corner store and ask them for the food they were going to throw out."

The soup kitchen run by Sister Mary Johnice Rzazkiewicz has seen double its usual clientele since Monday.

"I came on my bike," said Arthur Jenkins, 61, of Reed Street, whose power was restored to his home Tuesday.

Charlie Brown, 62, of Durham Court, who sat down with his friends at the center for lunch, said his power just came back, too.

Sunday, while Brown went to check on his father who lives on the West Side, thieves broke into his home and stole two televisions, his DVD player and his collection of about 400 DVDs. "They kicked the door down," he said, shaking his head.

Also stopping by the soup kitchen Wednesday was Dawn Obe, a case manager with the Buffalo Federation of Neighborhood Centers, who was there to obtain food for about 20 of her most frail clients. "A lot of them are physically disabled and they can't get out to buy food," Obe said. "They can't cook for themselves, and some can't even open cans."



Williamsville:
Oakgrove Drive

Oakgrove Drive, just south of Main Street, was closed to traffic for much of Wednesday, and residents couldn't have been more thrilled.

It was closed while highway crews from the village and several Niagara County towns used payloaders and dump trucks to remove the piles of limbs, branches and brush up to 10 feet high that lay between the sidewalks and curbs.

A Williamsville payloader scooped up the heavy branches and dumped them into a Town of Lewiston dump truck.

"It's a great spirit of cooperation, a great joint effort," Lewiston Highway Superintendent Steve Reiter said.

Residents got out their rakes Wednesday to clear their muddy rights of way.

"What I'm going to remember the most is how the street came together," Steve Szymoniak said. "The trees will grow back, but this just brought everybody together."

Six days without power grated at some residents.

"It's kind of cold in the house," said Jim Beach, a retired biologist. "The temperature in the refrigerator is the same as the temperature in the rest of the house, 51 or 52 degrees."



Lackawanna:
McKinley Parkway

Raymond Lemke, 65, barked at a black sport utility vehicle to "Slow down!" Wednesday afternoon as it dashed through an alley behind his McKinley Parkway home. He and his wife, Christina, 56, are caring for their two grandchildren who are home from school as their parents head to work.

They were joined on their front porch Wednesday by their friend Sue Steger, 47, and her 5-year-old daughter, and they watched with thankfulness as a tree-removal crew worked on their street. "They told us that this is worse than Hurricane Katrina when it comes to trees," Steger said.

But the Lemkes say they have very few complaints compared with families in other parts of Lackawanna struggling with flooded basements in addition to the lack of power.

"I just want to be able to vacuum and do some mending with my sewing machine," Christina Lemke said.



Snyder:
Burbank Drive

Burbank Drive residents always have prided themselves on their neighborhood gem, the canopy of tree branches that formed a protective ceiling over the street just north of Main Street. "All these beautiful trees, it's just a shame," resident Ruth Hays sighed.

"We had a full-arched canopy over the street, and we've probably lost 30 to 40 percent of our total limb coverage," said Dale Placey.

Burbank is part of a five-block area - also including Burroughs, Audubon, Smallwood and Lakewood - that runs north from Main Street, between Harlem Road and the Youngmann Highway.

"Street after street after street here is a disaster area, really," said Martin Quinn of Burbank, a retired pharmacist.

Over the weekend, one neighbor marveled at something they weren't used to seeing - the sun peeking through what was left of the canopy.

"I'd rather have the trees," Quinn replied.


e-mail: mbecker@buffnews.com
and gwarner@buffnews.com

Oh shit!

Is this why you couldn't do the quiz?

Sorry.

gemini13 said:

Yep, we were all going through computer withdrawal here .
I'll catch up on the quiz next month .