What Buffalo Learned from Last Year’s Winter Storm

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(TNS) – When it comes to history-making winter weather, Buffalo has learned its lesson, Mayor Byron Brown said Thursday.

That lesson: Be prepared.

“It’s critical not only for government entities, but it’s critical for our residents, businesses and not-for-profit community, as well,” he said.

Brown made the comments during a news conference in the Delavan Grider Community Center where a winter storm response task force delivered a series of recommendations designed to improve communication, bolster equipment and strategic operations and add more lifesaving measures in the event of another catastrophic weather event like the one that paralyzed Buffalo in December and claimed dozens of lives.

Brown was accompanied by several task force members who, over the last several months, have been reviewing outcomes of last winter’s storm responses.

Among the recommendations of the task force is for the city to improve its winter safety public service announcements by having the city partner with Charter Communications to do several announcements to inform residents about how to stay safe during winter weather emergencies.

Brown said the public service announcements will start airing Dec. 1 on Spectrum television channels in Buffalo and throughout the Western New York region.

He said additional digital message boards will be installed in high-traffic areas around the city, and emergency storm information will be released in multiple languages, including Arabic, Bengali, Karen and Swahili, to cater to new immigrant groups. He added that, during life-threatening weather conditions, the city also plans to use the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System, known as IPAWS.

“It operates like an amber alert to automatically push notifications to cellphones of area residents. We will partner with Erie County, New York State and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and this will result in access to this new communications tool,” Brown said.

Meanwhile, he said, the city’s Department of Public Works has acquired on loan six additional plows from the State Thruway Authority, which will bring the city’s fleet of plows to 10 this year. To assist those who might become stranded during a storm or who need to be transported, the city will increase its reliance on snowmobiles and utility terrain vehicles, or UTVs.

The mayor said the city will have available to residents at least one emergency shelter in each of its nine Council districts.

“We know that in the last winter there were a number of residents that ventured out and found themselves trapped outside. Now residents will know the locations of these nine emergency shelters. Blue lights will be placed outside of the centers for visibility, and generators will be obtained for the shelters to ensure reliable heat and electricity,” said Brown.

Erie County Commissioner of Public Works William Geary, a member of the mayor’s storm response task force, described its nearly 30 members as “some of the best subject matter experts in the areas of food distribution, utilities, public works, health and life safety, law enforcement and fire.”

“But more importantly, I think the biggest component of this task force was the block clubs and hearing from the communities how we can better serve everybody, not just in the City of Buffalo, but throughout all of Erie County,” Geary said.

The collaboration will result in a more robust communication plan.

“When it comes to an emergency event, I’m confident that we’re prepared and better positioned in the City of Buffalo, as well as Erie County,” said Geary.