BUFFALO, N.Y. — Entering Tuesday night, a lake effect snow band is set to shift toward the City of Buffalo again while the region is still in the process of recovering from the last storm that hit over the weekend.
Despite the latest projections calling for 1-3 feet of snow with a significant portion expected to hit the city, leaders like Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said they feel confident in their abilities to tackle the upcoming storm because of a new strategy they used during the last one.
“What we have done this time, which is different than our planning in the past, is we've started with private contractors right from the very beginning of the snowstorm event, giving us the ability to get into our main streets and secondary streets simultaneously,” Brown said Tuesday.
Because of that, the city is not calling for a driving ban — a decision Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz also made countywide.
But despite the county executive saying he made that decision after a call with town, city and village leaders, there appears to be some mixed messaging.
“We determined that with the amount of snowfall that we're going to have, that people can get to work,” Brown said. “We will have equipment staged. We're prepared for the snowfall. We'll be bringing in private contractors. City Hall won't be closed. We know that many other places of business will be open.”
“We are strongly recommending that employers use remote work if possible,” Poloncarz said. “We really want to keep the number of vehicles off the roads in the next day or two, just so that we have an opportunity to get out there and clear the roads.”
As the storm moves north, crews are getting to work while some are still cleaning up from the last storm in certain areas. However, local leaders assured that the last storm’s cleanup should not cause any major delays in digging out from this next one.