Original subtitles

Wow.

Help me!

The vehicle that's stuck under there.

That woman's seven months pregnant.

Two more!

I can't hardly breathe!

We're going to get you guys all out.

This is horrible.

He needs medical attention!

He's going to lose his fingers.

This man going to die in front of my kids.

Initially,

it looks like a typical winter storm.

We get a lot of them here.

But by the 22nd, the charts had a screaming message

that this one is different.

My name is Vivien

and I'm from Shelby Township, Michigan.

The holidays are definitely a special time of year for us.

Every Christmas we go to my Dad's side of the family.

Since we life in Michigan and they live in the east side

of Pennsylvania, we only get to see them

a few times out of the year, so, um, it means a lot to us.

This... this will be a good Christmas.

My dad is driving, my mom's in the passenger seat,

I'm in the back seat.

The snow, it's picking up

and you never really expect any surprises on the turnpike,

it's pretty much same old... same old every year.

The main storm itself

is out here to our west.

On Friday we're gonna see rain,

temperatures in the 40 but on the back side of it,

this is a raging blizzard.

This is a storm that's going to combine

heavy lake-effect snow, strong winds

and the potential

of a life-threatening blizzard.

One to three feet of snow,

winds gusting to as high as 70 miles an hour.

This will cause impossible travel conditions.

We've gotta get that message out.

Do not go outside, do not try to travel,

your life depends on it.

As we're driving into Ohio,

we're getting frost on the windshield

and then it's harder to see.

We can't see anything in front of us.

I don't know what to do.

I'm... I'm panicking.

My dad says, "Oh, [bleep]."

State Highway Patrol dispatcher Figueroa.

How can I help you?

We're underneath the southwest road overpass.

I have a multiple vehicle accident at the 106

under the overpass.

Where are you traveling to Cleveland or Toledo?

Cleveland or Toledo Dad?

I'm panicking,

I see my mom in the passenger seat.

I'm not really sure if she's alive or not.

My dad's not moving.

He's just in a state of shock.

Are you injured?

Help me!

There's a lot.

You can hear them crashing on the phone.

It's just this car after car.

Okay. All right. We're en route. Okay?

Are you able to move your car off the roadway?

No, we can't move we're pinned between a semi

and two trucks.

Okay. Are you injured?

I don't know!

It feels like eternity.

Just sitting in that car waiting for...

for trucks and other cars to essentially kill you.

My hands are frozen!

Oh, go ahead

I'll get everyone in my car,

even in the front seat!

Man, you can't breathe out here!

I know.

It's completely crushed!

There's so many people trapped in here

and they're saying...

the firemen are saying they can't get through

with their resources to get over

to help get people out.

Holy crap!

Attention Figueroa.

Go ahead.

Can you get a hold of maintenance?

I can break free and get some flares out in the westbound

to keep traffic stopped.

But I'm gonna need a little bit of help

Okay.

896, I'm also westbound.

I can push them off to 110

if that's what they want to do?

Hi. Okay.

We're trying to get help, okay?

Is anybody there seriously injured?

Hold on. I can't hear you. What?

I'm not seriously injured

but my wife is seven months pregnant!

Okay, we're trying to get the fire department

to get over here with tools to get you out, okay?

Just be patient.

All right. Thank you!

Contact the County EMA

or possibly the sheriff's department,

see if they can get a hold of maybe...

We're going to try

and get this truck out of place

so we can get in here.

The vehicle that's stuck under there.

That woman's seven months pregnant.

In which truck?

Underneath here. This car right here.

I didn't know there was a vehicle in there.

Yeah, there's a guy and a wife,

and I don't know if there's a child.

We're stuck.

My mom's waking up and I thought I had lost her.

There's glass all over her.

The passenger side window, it's totally gone.

My foot, it's hurting really bad.

Um, my chest hurts, my back really hurts.

The only thing making it feel so real is the pain.

Are we even going to be able to survive

long enough in this cold

for first responders to even get to us?

I think right now we're at three fatalities.

Oh, yeah.

There's one trapped in there that's still talking.

That's good.

One of the fatals was this car right here.

Okay.

First responders have to...

carry me outof the car.

They immediately put us in an ambulance, um,

to get us to the hospital.

As we're passing all of the cars,

I hope that everybody is okay

'cause I know a lot of us aren't okay.

It's just a few hours

after the horrific pile up on I-80

and conditions in Buffalo are getting very bad,

very fast.

Talk about the headlined.

A blizzard warning has been issues

for Erie County, Niagara County,

Orleans and Genesee County.

As the storm approaches from Ohio,

Lake Eerie happens to be unusually warm

and when the freezing cold storm front collides

with this warmth on Lake Erie,

you get high octane fuel for an explosive storm.

This is a different animal.

This storm is going to have a massive effect on Buffalo.

My name is Reed Timmer,

I'm an extreme meteorologist

and I was covering this event for the news.

And just streaming off the top of Lake Erie

continues to solidify all kinds of thunder

and lightening in there.

Look at some of those heavier elements.

As I was approaching the Buffalo,

I could see all these warning signs too

that are on the billboards saying,

"Dangerous arctic air mass."

You could definitely feel that a life-threatening event

was on the way,

just after I landed in Buffalo.

I'm in downtown Buffalo,

where dangerous blizzard conditions are prevailing.

Look at this intersection back behind me.

This is over out here towards the harbor,

an area where that storm surge was happening earlier.

Now you can't even see it out there.

For me, snow was never a scary thing.

Uh, it was always, you know, good to see the snow.

But I've never seen a whiteout like this.

Snow coming in my house from the creases of my door

all the snow was just blowing in.

And I've never seen nothing like that,

and I was just like, this is really crazy.

I wake up to someone saying, "Help."

I stand up and I think to myself,

"Maybe it's the winds."

So, I...

I try to look out of my window,

I can see like, a shadow.

And I grab my phone.

He was at my door banging.

He outside screaming, "Help".

Older white man I just can't let him in my house though.

I don't know what to do.

I feel so bad because he keeps falling.

He keeps screaming, "Help!"

I don't know what to do. I feel so terrible.

He can't even walk.

Like, the wind is so bad.

This person needs help.

We need to get this man out of the storm.

My boyfriend, he goes out.

Opening the door, the wind was so powerful,

I just... it felt like ice needles

just being thrown at my face.

When he finally got him up, he like, he...

he was carrying him, but his body was so still

that he couldn't really, um, like, loosen up.

So, when he got up, when he sat him at the chair,

he was just... he was froze, like,

completely froze.

I said, you know, "What's your name?"

He's like, "Joe."

He needs help.

What... what else am I supposed to do?

I don't know.

So, I went live.

I am stressed out in this house.

I currently have an older 64-year-old white man

in my house.

I heard him screaming for help.

This is what his hands is looking like.

We gotta get some help.

He has gangrene on his hands.

I'm gonna...

He's going to lose his fingers.

I don't know what to do.

Y'all need to share this.

He had a bag.

He had this Tops bag, this bag on, in, on his hands.

It were frozen to his hands.

Okay, I cut it off.

After I cut it off.

When I cut it off his hands, I turned around,

and I had to blow dry the ice off of him.

He's in pain. He's in pain.

Look at this, y'all.

This man going to lose his fingers!

I thought, "What if he dies in here?"

And I'm... I'm scared.

I'm scared on so many different levels.

Listen to Joe.

How are you feeling, Joe?

Joe ready to go!

He ready to go.

He needs to go because he needs medical attention!

If you're in the city of Buffalo

you're trapped, likely inside of your home

because the snow is just continuing to pile up.

We have Joe in my house,

and I don't know what's getting ready to happen to him

because he's fading out.

I've noticed that his eye are starting to dilate

and his hands are starting to turn bluish purple.

This man is really in pain.

As I'm...

I'm rubbing the, um... the Vaseline on him,

his skin started to tear, and, um...

I was crying because I felt so bad for him

and I didn't know if I was doing

the right thing for him but then it's like,

help's not coming, so what do I do?

You know, what do I do for this little old man?

It's white out conditions.

We've seen no change throughout the day.

Over here at the waterfront, it is windy, it's gusting.

The wind is so strong,

it's taking the snowflakes

and they're running into to each other

and shredding themselves,

which is a unique thing with lake-effect snow,

which makes the visibility even worse.

Officials tell me more than 90 people

were told to evacuate and just under dozen people...

We did fear for the community,

for those that felt that they could brave the storm.

Look at these scenes out here in downtown Buffalo

as the peak of the blizzard continues to rage tonight.

We were in downtown Buffalo,

and I was covering in deteriorating conditions

for the news.

Peak blizzard here!

One of the most extensive,

most intense blizzards I've ever covered!

Just this feeling out here of helplessness,

the crippling temperatures, the wind chills,

the bitter cold.

If you get separated from your structure,

you're not going to last long out here.

It truly is a dangerous,

life-threatening weather emergency.

What made this storm so dangerous for people

is that it happened during the holiday season,

and it caught a lot of travelers off guard.

The temperature plummeted 10s of degrees.

The winds gusted up to 70 to 80 miles an hour.

You suddenly had instantaneous

white out conditions.

Max winds are starting to happen

as well, and scenes across downtown Buffalo

look quite scary.

I saw a vehicle with its emergency lights going.

And I ended up looking in the vehicle

and I saw, like, a full family in there.

We do have a problem.

We have people that are diabetic and an asthmatic

that are stuck in their car back there

and I'm going to try to figure out a way

to get them.

My friend Brandon had his vehicle

just a couple of blocks away.

So, I just guided my friend toward that family,

and they're wrapped in their vehicle.

I could feel the minus 40-degree wind chills,

I could feel the 80 mile per hour winds,

and I thought, "Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna die out here."

I had to be very careful,

even just getting a few feet from their vehicle

to a warm vehicle was a challenge.

Climb on up.

I got you.

I can't hardly breathe!

Need help?

Okay.

I got you. I got you.

You got her.

Wait a minute

You okay?

Yes, man.

Great job Ree-Ree.

Are you okay? - Oh, yeah.

All right

I have one more. - All right.

We'll do front seat? - Yeah.

Shut the door, please.

All right.

I've got to calm down. - Calm down, yeah.

Calm down.

I know it's hard when you can't breathe.

And we'll get you to a nice,

warm hotel here in a second.

Oh, goodness

No problem. That's Brandon.

Hi, Brandon. - Hello.

Did you lock the door?

Um, you know what, I didn't.

Oh, my God.

I gotta go back and lock that door

I can get it.

Want me to lock it? - Yes, please.

I got you. - Thank you. Okay.

Thank you. Reed. - Watch your leg.

Thank God.

It is no place for you to be.

It's very dangerous out here

and you don't wanna get caught in this weather

so, please stay in your homes.

This Buffalo blizzard was actually the most extreme

life-threatening event I've ever chased

and that's across all hurricanes,

tornadoes and everything else.

Most blizzards last for a few hours

but this storm is so strong and continues to strengthen

blizzard conditions are lasting a long time.

And all they do is dump snow right on Buffalo.

There was vast amounts of snow,

streets that are clogged and stuck vehicles.

Anndel is...

Bubbly.

She's a loving person, she's a caring person.

She's goofy.

She's always singing.

She sings a lot.

When she's playing with my kids,

her nieces and nephews.

She was driving home from work

as a certified nursing assistant,

she gets stuck in the snow around three.

And, um, she basically, sends us a video.

No cuz.

This is what you call a blizzard.

God!

We couldn't really see much

but we saw that, you know, she was stuck,

so we started helping her call the police.

And they basically just had us on hold for hours.

She was like, five minutes away from home.

About 8:30 she sent,

"I don't know how long this gas is gonna last."

She said she was mad,

her car door is now covered with snow.

Around 11:55, she said,

"I'm about to go to sleep because I keep dozing off.

When I wake up, I'm gonna walk."

She sent another video around 12:09

saying the snow is at her stomach line

but nobody responded with her.

That was the last message.

I woke up to text messages

asking if anybody has heard from her.

I said, "No, is she not responding?"

She said, "I called three times

and it's just ringing."

And then that's when everybody started to get worried,

basically.

That was kinda hard to read.

The night of the 23rd,

blizzard conditions in Buffalo

and it's not breaking.

It is by far the largest, most impactful storm

I had ever seen.

If you happened to get stuck,

it can lead to the attempt to wanna rescue yourself

and in the process of doing that,

putting yourself into even more danger,

getting lost and getting frost bite,

freezing to death.

If, if law enforcement can get to you,

which is a good question, uh, because it's very dangerous

and very difficult for them to get out there,

uh, if they can reach you, they will take you

and leave your car where it is.

Vehicles were getting stuck everywhere.

We had to get them out as soon as possible

because it was only gonna get worse from here.

It appears unoccupied.

Park! Park!

Park? - Yeah!

Do you want me to close everything up?

Where are we?

Is this you?

Yeah, I'm trying to get home but...

I've been trying to get home for a long time.

Got it?

Thank you.

You're welcome.

It's always gonna be impossible to get to everybody

because there's always gonna be streets that

we can't make it to

and it's hard for the people to have to wait.

My girls,

when they couldn't get in touch with Anndel,

that's when they called me.

My daughters was tracking her phone

and they said that the phone was at the car.

It was about nine, 'cause she was still there,

so I decided to put a message in Buffalo Blizzard of 2022.

And I was just asking if anybody had seen her

because I worry, like, 'cause she was still there.

There was vast amounts of snow

and stuck vehicles.

The entire landscape is just transformed.

The storm is so bad that we have to quickly

get to the people we can get to

because eventually we're gonna get stuck.

Hello, Cheektowaga police.

How can I help you?

Yes, I'm stuck in the parking lot

on Genesee and Union in front of Save-A-Lot

and I can't drive home

because I can't see where I'm going,

and I'm really scared.

I just can't see the drive home.

And I don't live that far away

but I just can't,

I can't even see the street to get on to it.

Got rerouted to help a 911 call

that just came in of a family in a minivan

that went off the road.

There's six people inside,

one being elderly, who's on dialysis.

If they stayed out in the cold too long, they...

they would die.

We're gonna get you guys all out.

You're going to get in our cars.

Get your windows up and turn it off.

The sheer coldness hurts,

it's almost like pins piercing into your skin.

Put this arm around me.

I'm going to put this around you.

We got you.

You got her? You got her?

All right. Who else?

No more.

We probably can fit three,

and two. Okay?

It's just me, Mom, and my Dad.

I got you.

We're going to the second car back here.

Two more!

Okay. Ready?

Just watch your step

We got to as many people as we could and, um...

and then we had to get to the shelter ourselves.

We wished that we could save everybody

and that is really hard for law enforcement

when we can't get to somebody to help them.

Well, definitely a survival situation

if you're gonna hit the road

and you don't have the proper gear

and you're wearing short sleeves

or shorts out here and you head out on the road,

you're probably gonna find yourself

in a life-threatening situation.

Five hours after I posted it on Facebook,

it was a guy, he reached out to me.

He told me saw the car.

He was gonna go check to see if she was in there.

I was just asking if he could just help her.

A hour later, he called back

and said that he could see her in the car.

And she was deceased.

If the car is running in snow,

it's around the exhaust pipe,

it will get hard like glass

and it will hold in that carbon monoxide.

It came through the vents,

and it killed her in her sleep that way.

So, yeah.

She was gone.

I just... I had to put the phone down for a second

and then I just started crying.

She didn't suffer.

She just went to sleep, and she went home.

I'll miss her so much.

Hey, hey!

By definition,

a blizzard can last a minimum of just three hours.

This storm has so much energy

that it can keep fueling itself not for hours,

but for days.

This is serious stuff.

Joe needs help.

And I didn't think it was gonna go on for days.

Two days is a long time.

Gangrene is starting to go up on his hands

and I'm like, "Okay, Joe, when I start clapping",

and he wasn't even responding.

Everybody keep saying they can't get to us.

And I don't know what's getting ready to happen to him

because he's fading out.

I'm like, "Okay, Joe, Joe."

He's like, fading out.

And now I'm really getting scared.

On Facebook, I gave both of my phone numbers,

I gave my address to social media,

whoever was watching.

Probably about two days go by then some guy showed up.

I'm gonna have to go take him.

Okay? - All right.

I'm really proud of y'all.

Y'all doing the right thing.

Okay please be good.

All right.

So, I guess the Facebook ended working out.

I got a lot of...

We got some guys that's carrying him right now.

I just wanted to show y'all that I wasn't exaggerating.

They came and they plowed out my house.

They're getting them in.

I don't know how I'm going to get through this!

Thank you for everybody that's been calling.

Trying to help us.

I thank these men for helping carry him.

Where are you at Joe? See I'm right here.

You okay?

I love you too, sweetie.

You okay.

You okay?

Yeah.

I'm right here.

That right there made me feel

like I was doing the right thing

with him saying that he loves me,

he felt safe.

You're doing an excellent job.

You're doing an excellent job, Joe.

You just got to breathe, right?

Just keep them right here

Okay.

Okay?

This man could have died.

64-years-old, could have died outside.

I wasn't letting that happen on my watch

and he wasn't going to die in front of my kids.

I'm scared because in reality he was in really bad shape.

I got the door, don't worry about the door.

I got the door. I got the door.

We got him to the emergency room.

Yeah, we good.

Stretcher. Stretcher.

Stretcher.

Thank you. I'm right here.

I'm right here.

Are you okay?

You're not going to hurt me, are you?

I can tell that gave him relief.

Well, I know he's very grateful.

I'm a complete stranger,

he's a complete stranger to me too

but now we're family forever.

It's really not getting any much better

right now, so please, heed our warnings,

stay at home, stay safe

so you don't have to be out in this.

This storm is different.

You may be stuck in life threatening situations

and there will be nobody,

potentially able to come and get you or rescue you.

I am the daughter of Debra Garcia.

My mother is a sweetheart,

she's in apartments for senior citizens

on the eight floor

and my mother is in a mobile wheelchair.

As the snow came in, the pipes actually burst,

causing flooding throughout the building.

My mother became extremely afraid.

She was stuck downstairs for a day in the cold.

I was only able to communicate with my mother

through the alert system.

She was letting them know

that she was freezing to death, she was scared.

And if I could find anyone that could save her.

My biggest fear was losing my mother.

I posted on social media, asking for help.

It was nighttime and the storm had broke.

And I'm just, like, I can't stay home.

Why not get this lady out of this apartment

where she could die of hypothermia?

David, he's my best friend.

He's like, "Bro, we lost electricity.

Okay, you wanna go for a ride?"

As things start to unfold,

we realize that things are going from bad to worse.

Bro, what type of is this?

I told you it wasn't no coming down your street.

The blizzard, like, snatches your oxygen

out of your mouth.

Can't breathe.

Oh, you stuck, stuck.

David jumps out of the car and he goes inside.

Was somebody sleeping in the hallway?

Somebody was sleeping in the hallway?

Leaving these people like this. It's crazy.

This is freezing!

We got, uh... Oh, God. It's horrible in here.

This is horrible!

Yo. So, we got, um...

we got... a message that somebody needed help.

This is bad.

It's... it's a lot of elderly people here

it's a lot of people that get...

that's like really sick and they need help.

As I've seen Debra, she's stuck

and she's jammed in between a garbage can,

a sharp cornered wall

and get her out and her chair's not working.

My purse.

Come on. I got your purse.

What else you got? What else you got?

Come on, grab me.

Uh, this man brought me gloves down.

Now he's stuck down here.

Okay, I'm going to help him back up

before we leave out of here.

We can't go up. We can't.

So, it's hard to see stuff like that.

It's hard.

She was frozen.

I definitely think she was traumatized.

We need help, no we need help.

Help me, Lord!

I didn't even know if she was gonna die.

You know?

Sorry.

I was not able to connect with my mother

because her phone was not working.

I was really in a panic.

The fear of finding my mother passed away.

Debra's scared and Debra is stuck.

It was hard to get her up to move

and she's vulnerable, you know?

Um, we are going to try our best to do what we can.

I don't want you to get stuck.

We're not going to get stuck.

Jesus help me.

I see David and Debra coming out of the...

the glass doors.

He's got her supported on his shoulder

and his arm around her.

Where are you heading to, Ma'am?

Here, take her

How are you?

She was frozen.

Had we not come there,

she probably could have died of hypothermia.

It was very, very real.

I'm... I'm in the door, waiting.

And looking.

So, just so y'all know, I'm live.

Yep.

So, Facebook family,

I want y'all to know that I am live.

What is your names?

Myles Carter.

And I'm David Louis.

They rescued my mother

from the JBL apartments.

She's here. My mother is disabled.

Been without lights, gas, food, water.

This is amazing. This is God's work.

Thank you, Jesus

Come on Mom, you're almost here.

Thank you.

Yeah, we got to back.

Listen thank you, y'all are such angels.

Thank you, thank you.

Oh, my God, I got my Mom.

My mom is my world,

so I can't imagine how Madonna felt in that moment.

And it was just...

it was just a beautiful moment.

Thank you,

all I can say is thank you Rasheed.

Thank you for the young gentlemen

that rescued my Mom.

Thank you.

God is so good!

I can only describe it as a miracle,

a gift sent from heaven.

There will always be two angels in my heart

and in my life.

The true definition of a classic blizzard

had ended on the 26th,

but the snow did still continue to fall.

You do have power outages that are taking place,

which means the heat is knocked out for...

for many residents.

I, I don't think I've ever seen a blizzard

like this one before.

We had, uh, majority of people

just trying to stay warm.

If they have electricity, what we'll have,

is we'll get overloaded circuits.

They'll plug heaters, electric heaters into 'em

and then those electric heaters

are obviously drawing a lot of electricity,

so they'll overload the circuits

and start the fires.

People do what they have to do to survive.

Yeah, it's a fire at 108 Londsalde.

Do you see flames?

We see smoke.

It's coming out of the building

the front and back.

Do you know if anybody lives there?

Yes, they do.

Wow. That's going...

Fast.

I hope them kids are out of there.

Their houses are only a couple of feet

apart from each other.

All wood framed houses.

They go up like, like it's a matchbox.

Some of the routes are blocked,

the fire's getting bigger and bigger.

Keep going, keep going.

Push it. Push it.

Keep going.

They got to move it enough

for this truck to get in the driveway

so the fire truck can get over there.

They gotta work the hose

through all that deep snow,

through the cold and everything else.

And now you have to ask 'em,

"Hey, now I need you to go in

and start putting the fire out."

That's one of them kids be all... they be upstairs.

Sometimes they be up there by themselves.

Oh, there it go.

It fell? - Uh-huh.

Wow.

Uh-uh. Uh-uh.

Now the snow with the wind conditions,

the exhaustion, the trudging through feets of snow,

you know, all that just... is taxing on the body.

It was an occupied structure,

so we knew there were people inside of it.

All three structures

reported clear of any residents!

Thankfully we were able to get people

out of the houses.

For any populated area

below an elevation of 5,000 feet,

this will go down as the longest

duration blizzard in US history.

We did our best to get the message out,

to give that advanced warning, to have people prepare.

But there was still a large loss of life.

I do have a lot of survivor's guilt

for what happened.

Why did other people have to die

and why did we get to live?

I gave my condolences to the families...

That lost a loved one in that storm.

If you're in a bad mood,

she'll always make you happy.

That's what I love... I loved about her.

And I just think it was too early

for her to go.

I miss her so much.

I actually see Joe often.

He end up losing his fingers, but he still has a life.

I'm so glad that God put him where he put him

to make me realize a lot of things

and not take a lot of things for granted.

Go Bills!

Go Bills.

You got your food, right? - Yeah.

Okay.