A Buffalo cop was stranded during the blizzard. When he was rescued, he went back out into the storm

A year ago Dec. 23, he was stuck for hours in his patrol vehicle on Tifft Street near the Skyway as the snow piled up around the car and hurricane-force winds whipped up whiteout conditions.

As day turned to night and the blizzard continued to rage, Raye’s supervisor called him again and again, telling him that help was on its way. His partner, Officer Kyma Dickinson, even tried to get to him on his own four-wheeler ATV, but couldn’t quite get there. The report technicians from the A District station were calling him, too, often in tears, telling him not give up hope.

Then his low fuel light blinked on.

Raye called his kids. His grandma. His friends:

“I was like: I love y’all. … Hopefully, I’ll make it out. But just in case.”

Raye survived the night by turning his engine on only long enough to keep the car warm and then turning it off to conserve gas. After the sun came up, a high-lift truck happened to pass by. Raye waved him down and got a ride back to the station house on South Park Avenue.

Raye’s supervisor told him to go home and enjoy Christmas Eve with his family.

But instead, he and Dickinson chowed down on a Christmas dinner that the parents of one of the lieutenants dropped off at the station, grabbed a printout of a list of people needing help, put on their heavy duty winter gear – they’re both avid skiers – and hopped into Raye’s Ram TRX.

They went right back out into the storm.