Blizzard death toll rises to 4 after two found dead in Massachusetts

Blizzard death toll rises to 4 after two found dead in Massachusetts

Snow-removal operations remained stalled as communities are finding their snow plows ill-equipped to deal with three-foot snow drifts.

The massive blizzard that slammed New England earlier this week has led to the deaths of two elderly individuals in separate communities, authorities believe.

Reuters reported that Olive Dupuis, 84, was found unresponsive next to her car Thursday morning near her home in Salem, which is north of Boston, and police believe it was sub-freezing temperatures and snow that caused her death. Meanwhile, in Yarmouth on Cape Code, 97-year-old Richard MacLead was found dead in deep snow next to his home near a carbon dioxide exhaust vent, police said.

The man’s son had asked police to go looking for him. They believe that he died when he was trying to clear the vent have the snowstorm.

The two deaths would bring the death toll for the blizzard to four.

Earlier in the week, an 80-year-old man died while shoveling snow in Connecticut, and a teenager was killed after crashing into a lamp post on Long Island while he was snow-tubing with friends.

The blizzard fell far short of expectations in the New York City area, but New England was hammered by high winds and up to 3 feet of snow in some place.

In Yarmouth, where the 97-year-old man had died, officials said that their snow plow-equipped pickup trucks just weren’t big enough to remove the huge snow drifts and plow residential streets, which was causing work to back up in the town.

Yarmouth Police Chief Frank Frederickson said that in 35 years of policing, it has been the most difficult snow-removal effort he has seen, according to the Reuters report.

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