A lake-effect snowstorm caused more than 5 feet of snow to fall in Buffalo, New York, trapping more than 100 cars on Interstate 90, the main highway that runs throughout New York.  A Greyhound bus was stranded for 34 hours on Interstate 90, a Buffalo college bus was stuck for 26 hours, 40 people were stranded at a highway toll booth, and towns south of Buffalo appeared to suffer the most damage with unnavigable side streets, homes almost entirely covered with snow and cars hidden under thick piles of snow.

Four deaths, one from a car crash and three from heart attacks, were the first deaths reported. Two of the heart attacks occurred while shoveling snow. The fifth death was a 46-year-old male found in a car and the last succumbed to a heart attack while using a snowblower.

A state of emergency was declared for 10 New York counties, and 526 snowplows and 17 industrial-size snowblowers were deployed by the state. Interstate 90 is now closed from Rochester to the New York-Pennsylvania state line with no released statement of when it will reopen. The National Weather Service states that some Buffalo areas may break the record for a single-day snowfall in the United States. 21 deaths so far have been reported throughout the states since Saturday.