Officials in Buffalo confirmed that looters targeted stores during a major winter snow that caused widespread havoc across the city over the past weekend.
“Our officers have responded to several reports” of looting, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Monday. “We have made a few arrests, we have intervened in some of those. We have assisted at least one location that I’m aware of in getting a store boarded up.”
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told reporters that evidence seen on social media indicates looters aren’t taking essential items.
“People who are out looting when people are losing their lives in this harsh winter storm is just absolutely reprehensible,” Brown told reporters. “I don’t know how these people can even live with themselves, how they can look at themselves in the mirror. They are the lowest of the low.”
He added that “some of the pictures that we’ve seen on social media” indicated that looters are “not looting foods and medicines.”
“They’re just looting items that they want,” the Democrat mayor said. “So these aren’t people in distress—these are people that are taking advantage of a natural disaster and the suffering of many in our community to take what they want from retailers—also potentially putting (emergency response) services at risk in the communities where they are looting.”
The blizzard, deemed the area’s worst in 45 years, took form late on Friday and pummeled western New York through the Christmas holiday weekend. It capped an Arctic freeze and winter storm front that had extended over most of the United States for days, stretching as far south as the Mexican border.
Acting State Police Superintendent Steve Nigrelli told local media that law enforcement has confirmed two reports of looting. Claiming they are “isolated incidents,” the looting in Buffalo is “not reflective of the greater community.”Another video posted on social media appeared to show looters targeting a Family Dollar store as the blizzard crippled the Buffalo area. The footage showed people running inside the store as at least one person was seen running out of the establishment with what appeared to be a bag filled with items.
Storm Damage
The greater Buffalo region, on the edge of Lake Erie near the Canadian border, has been one of the hardest-hit places. Cars and buses were buried under towering snow drifts and high-lift equipment was being used for hospital transports where ambulances could not drive.Up to a foot of snow was still forecast to fall through Tuesday in some areas south of Buffalo and north of Syracuse.
Hundreds of national guard troops were assisting local first responders and state police on Monday as crews rescued people trapped in homes and cars, performed wellness checks, and delivered food and basic needs.
Emergency workers have struggled to navigate past snow drifts to do their jobs; and many snow plows, tow trucks, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles dispatched over the weekend had to be rescued themselves after getting stuck in the snow, county officials said.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said he expected the White House to issue a disaster declaration on Monday, which would help the region cover the daunting expense of storm rescue and recovery.
A driving ban was still in effect in Buffalo on Monday, for safety purposes and to keep the roads clear for emergency and utility workers trying to weave through a nearly impassable obstacle course of buried cars and snow banks.
