The deadly lake-effect storms that slammed Western New York causing road, school and business closings during the last week are expected to weaken, giving crews time to clean up.
Plow crews in the middle of Erie County were put to the test Wednesday and overnight, but County Executive Mark Poloncarz expected most, if not all, driving bans to be lifted by this morning.
Still, the storm is not over. Two to 2.5 feet were expected in the heaviest-hit areas by the end of this midweek storm, including the already hard-hit Southtowns, with a foot to 18 inches expected in the City of Buffalo on top of what was dumped during a storm last holiday weekend.
Two people died this week in incidents related to snow clearing, Poloncarz said.
A 64-year-old man died Monday in Lancaster in what the county executive described as a snow shoveling death. A 57-year-old woman was found Tuesday next to her snowblower.
A 41-year-old man was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Cheektowaga, also on Monday.
“We attribute all of these to the storm, so unfortunately we have had deaths associated with the storm,” Poloncarz said.
Cheektowaga police reported that about 7:20 p.m. Monday, Antwain Hankle was struck and killed by an SUV traveling west on Losson Road.
Hankle was clearing snow off his parked vehicle on the side of the road when he was hit by someone driving what was described as a newer model, gray Ford Explorer. The driver kept going and turned north on Union Road.
The incident is being investigated by the Cheektowaga Police Department’s Accident Investigation Unit. Anyone who saw it or took video is asked to contact the unit at 716-686-3527.
Travel advisories and bans
Poloncarz on Wednesday expected the driving bans to be lifted by this morning, but he said he had not been planning bans for Wednesday until some communities got up to 3 feet of snow.
The forecast was for 8 to 12 inches of snow.
“At no time did we have a forecast that said that there…
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