BUFFALO, N.Y. — During the Christmas blizzard, 190 people were rescued at and around the airport, spanning about five miles.
Of those rescues, 141 were non-airport personnel and it even included one dog. Many of those rescued were stuck in a tunnel under the runway.
Since airport crews could not clear the runway in blinding conditions, they also assisted Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority police and fire in saving people.
"With the support of the fire department, the field, the airport, I'm proud to report to you that we didn't have one fatality around the footprint of the buffalo airport. That's a testament to the first responders in the field and the airport personnel," NFTA Police captain Louis Loubert said.
One of those not pleased with the NFTA's response to the storm is the ATU, the largest of 13 unions representing workers there.
"We weren't mentioned one time in that meeting, and our members are the ones affected," ATU president Jeffrey Richardson said.
Richardson says the NFTA only communicated with workers about the storm on Friday, Dec. 23.
"There was no more communication after that. All the communication came from my office," Richardson said.
By Monday, he says employees were told they needed to come to work.
"If you don't come to work, you get what you call a 'miss.' That goes on record for a no call, no show. That's a problem. Why would you give somebody a miss? Even if you're going to take it away, why would you threaten them and put their lives in danger," Richardson said.
NFTA officials tell me the agency has many ways of communicating with employees and is working on a way to centralize it in one place for everyone.
They also sent 2 On Your Side this statement:
"We are so proud of our entire workforce here at the NFTA who are responsible for saving the lives of 141 people, and stayed with the many people who took emergency shelter at our many facilities that we opened to the public. We appreciate the willingness of our essential workers who came in to help restore our operations as quickly as possible."
The NFTA lost about $2.6 million at the airport both in revenue and in snow removal expenses. Metro Services lost more than $265,000 in revenue, contractor costs and overtime expenses.
Though they're working on getting FEMA money, if granted, it will only cover some of their financial loss.
NFTA officials admit it's unlikely that they'll recover all those costs.