National Guard goes house to house in Buffalo after winter storm

The National Guard went door-to-door Wednesday in parts of Buffalo to check on people left without power after the area’s deadliest winter storm in decades, and authorities faced the tragic prospect of finding more victims amid the melting snow.

More than 30 deaths have already been reported in western New York as a result of the storm that hit much of the country, including Buffalo, on Friday and Saturday.

Carolyn Eubanks, who was using an oxygen machine to breathe, collapsed after losing power at her Buffalo home at a time when rescuers were unable to respond to phone calls, her son Antwaine Parker told The Buffalo News. .

“She tells me, ‘I can’t go on anymore.’ I beg her, ‘Mom, just stand up.’ She fell into my arms and never said another word,” Parker told the newspaper.
Parker and her half brother knocked on neighbors’ houses for help. They found her when an unknown man, David Purdy, responded to her call and helped them carry Eubanks, 63, into her home and tried unsuccessfully to revive her. Purdy and his fiancée guarded her body until rescuers arrived the next day.

“I did it with as much respect as possible,” Purdy told The Buffalo News.
Timothy Murphy, 27, died after snow covered a heater vent, causing carbon monoxide to fill his Lockport home, Niagara County police said.

Monique Alexander, 52, was found buried in the snow after going out into the storm for unknown reasons, her daughter told the same newspaper.
Anndel Taylor, 22, died inside her car after it got stuck on her way home from work, her family told WSOC-TV.

After the weather turned a little milder on Wednesday and the number of power outages decreased, members of the New York National Guard knocked on the doors of homes in Buffalo and its suburbs.

“We fear that there are individuals who may have perished, who were living alone, or people who are not having a good time,” said Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. Buffalo is in the county.

A pair of members of the National Guard knocked on the door of a house while people nearby tried to remove snow to gain access to businesses on a major avenue in Buffalo.

Twenty-five Guard teams were making those rounds Wednesday, spokesman Eric Durr said by phone. He indicated that the troops had already made some tours before to see how the people were.

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