Gov. Kathy Hochul allowed “greater local decision-making” around road closures and ban travel during the crucial hours before Buffalo was crushed by a once-in-a-lifetime blizzard that left more than 40 people dead, a new report revealed Friday.
The 175-page after-action review of the local and state response to the history-making December snowstorm by New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service also identified key shortcomings in Buffalo’s municipal infrastructure and emergency alert systems that hampered the response.
Hochul’s handling of the road closures came under intense scrutiny in the immediate aftermath of the snow squall as photos and videos of motorists stranded on roads circulated widely.
“It is likely that the problem of stranded vehicles was related to the timing for closing roads, a decision controlled by Erie County,” NYU’s experts determined. “Although New York’s prior Governor Andrew Cuomo had historically decreed road closures through executive order during his tenure, current Governor Kathy Hochul, who took office in August 2021, has permitted greater local decision-making around road closures.”
The report, commissioned by Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, revealed that Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz — who, on paper, is the official tasked with making the call unless there’s an emergency order from Hochul — had “expressed concerns” about the travel ban starting too early.
A timeline of the road closures included in the report shows that state Department of Transportation was the first to announce road closures: Theirs came the night before the storm struck and was to take effect at 6 a.m. that day, though the freeway gates remained open until 9 a.m.
By 8 a.m., that Friday, temperatures had plummeted to the point where snow was falling.
But Poloncarz didn’t declare a state of emergency until 7 a.m. and only announced the county-wide travel ban at 8:45 a.m.
The city of Buffalo only put out its first blizzard around then, at 8:37 a.m.
By 9 a.m., visibility on the roads had dropped to zero and the white-out was underway.
Buffalo’s Division of Community Services didn’t announce that the city’s schools were closing until nearly an hour later, at 9:43 a.m.
The state-controlled Thruway Authority was the last of the bunch, only shutting down at 2 p.m.
Hochul’s deference, the report determined, contributed to a disjointed response from the local officials who were used to being big-footed by Cuomo, a practice by the disgraced governor that frequently exasperated county officials, particularly during the coronavirus vaccine rollout.
“These announcement timings were likely due to Buffalo and Erie County officials waiting for the State’s decision, having grown accustomed to the previous New York State Governor’s common executive orders closing local roads, which he did 14 times,” NYU found.
Over the course of Dec. 23, a record-setting 22 inches of snow fell at Buffalo Airport, which was pushed into massive drifts by fearsome wind gusts that reached 69 mph.
The storm would roar on for another four days, through Dec. 27, and would drop more than 56 inches of snow — so much snow that roof collapses were reported in Buffalo, alongside the thousands of power outages.
Poloncarz spokesman Peter Anderson said in a statement that the Eric County exec had already taken lessons from the botched response to the blizzard.
“Immediately after the Christmas Blizzard Erie County undertook a robust after-action review that will inform future blizzard and severe weather responses,” Anderson wrote. “We look forward to working with all local and state partners including the City of Buffalo to improve storm response and protect public safety.”
Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.