Buffalo snow creating Fort Erie backlog

(Updated)

We just can’t seem to escape the early winter weather. It’s expected to feel like minus 19 in some areas tonight. And there’s snow is in the forecast for Wednesday.

And the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie is still closed to truck traffic this hour after a wall of snow buried Buffalo.

A photo that went viral on Twitter shows a giant wall of snow that took aim at Buffalo and it’s all of the lake effect variety. The U.S. National Guard is now on its way to the area to assist with the cleanup and all of Erie County is in a state of emergency.

That state of emergency means a travel ban is in effect. No flights are taking off or landing at Niagara Falls International Airport. Buffalo is already in need of additional plows and tow trucks to help clean up this mess. It’s been snowing for more than 20 hours now. There’s more than a metre in some places.

This storm has paralyzed upstate New York from Buffalo to Rochester. Major highways are closed, including the I-90 South.

Hundreds of trucks and drivers are waiting out this storm in Fort Erie which escaped this storm even though it’s just across the river.

It started snowing late last night south of Buffalo and hasn’t let up. The snow is piling up fast. In some places it’s falling at more than 7 centimetres an hour.

Jason Rolston, truck driver: “Snow’s blowing. It’s really slippery. Everything’s frozen up.”

Driving is impossible. The New York State Thruway has been shut down from Dunkirk to Rochester. 120 vehicles, most of them trucks, got stuck on the Thruway in Lackawanna just south of Buffalo overnight.

That’s why transports travelling from Canada are being blocked at the Peace Bridge.

Robert McLean, turned around at the Peace Bridge: “They told us we can’t go any further because the highway is closed.”

Hundreds of trucks jammed the parking lot at the Fort Erie truck stop, forced to wait out the storm. On a normal day, about 18 hundred trucks cross the Peace Bridge into the U.S.

(Where are you going?) John Meade: “Cheektowaga, I only have to go another 18 km. And I can’t get there.”

Looking over the lake towards Lackawanna and you see nothing but black clouds full of snow — while Fort Erie is clear.

Robert McLean says he was going to try to cross anyway: “Take it from me. I was there. And they turned me around. Stay here. Better off here.

High winds kept ships out of the Welland Canal.

They shut down the Welland Canal when the wind gusts over 70 kilometres an hour. They don’t want the ships crashing into the lock walls There are ships delayed at both ends of the canal — in Lakes Ontario and Erie.

Meanwhile, with the whiteout conditions and the snow piling up over the border, the only way to get around safely right now is by snowmobile.

The lot at this truck stop is jammed with trucks right now. There is no place to park. Drivers have not been given an indication of when they’ll be able to leave. There were 16 race horses in trailers heading to Florida that tried to cross the Peace Bridge that were turned back. The horses are now back at the Fort Erie race track. They’re appealing for blankets and bales of hay to keep them overnight.