Buffalo in for another rough week of weather

Nov 21, 2014 | News

Julianne Fox

Temperatures are rising in Buffalo and residents are worried now about flooding as the two meters of snow that has blanketed the area start to melt.

snow

Courtesy of Russ Courtney.

Within the next 72 hours temperatures will be going up to the low teens and the warm rain and the warm air will assault all that snow, said senior climatologist of Environment Canada David Phillips.

“Officials gave a briefing today where they expect there to be some to moderate flooding, so some areas that have never seen flooding before, could,” said Newstalk 1010 reporter Russ Courtney who is on the scene.

He said officials say if you live in an area that always gets flooded, it probably will.

Courtney has been in Cheektowaga, just east of Buffalo, since Wednesday.  He said some people in his area said they are moving everything they can from their basements in case any flooding occurs.

Courtney said there would not be any more issues with snow as the lake effect snow blast is over. He said today is really about cleaning up.

“There have been a lot of crews out there,” said Courtney.  “They have front-end loaders loading up big trucks full of snow, moving trucks out to storage locations that they have set up.”

He said the city had to open up another dumping location because the first one, an old train station, was getting too full of snow.

“As of this morning, there were 29,000 tons of snow that have been removed from Buffalo,” said Courtney.

Even though a lot of snow has been cleared off sidewalks and roadways Courtney said there are still travel bans in place.

snow2

Courtesy of Russ Courtney.

Courtney also said officials cautioned residents about water leaking through the roofs of their houses due to the melting of the snow. The weight of the snow reportedly has caused several roofs to collapse.

“Air could get out of the snow, and it can be compacted and weighted down,” Phillips said.

Officials said at least 30 major collapses have happened and as the day moves on they fear more roofs will collapse.  Residents were urged to remove themselves from their homes and call someone in the case of a collapse.

Phillips said a week from today Buffalo will see temperatures go back to the freezing mark, so whatever water standing there will likely begin to freeze.

“They are in for a very difficult week,” said Phillips. The week has already been difficult, but will be even more challenging in the days to come, he said.