Lake Storm "Aphid" - Impact

Impact

The storm's effects were highly localized: it dumped up to 3.5 feet (142 cm) of snow on some areas of the Buffalo metro region, while other areas saw very little snow, or no snow at all. The event was described by the NWS Office in Buffalo, New York, as "astounding", "unbelievable" and "incredible" and by the Toronto Star as "one of the most devastating snow storms in US history." It was also an example of the "particularly rare meteorological phenomenon" known as thundersnow.

These were the two snowiest October days recorded in Buffalo since the NWS began keeping track 137 years ago.

In affected areas, wet, heavy lake effect snow with a snow-water equivalent (SWE) ratio of between 6:1 and 12:1 (in comparison, the "powder" so prized by skiers is 25:1) and with a weight in excess of 9.8 pounds per square foot) piled onto trees which were still in full leaf, leading to significant damage on a scale usually associated with hurricanes. An estimated 400,000 people were without power on Friday the 13th, some 100,000 households remained without power for a week, and a few thousand remained without power for ten days.

During the power outage, whenever generators went on sale, they typically ran out within thirty minutes. Lowe's and Home Depot stores were sold out immediately after the storm hit. Despite the conditions, a Buffalo Sabres hockey game against the New York Rangers was not postponed at HSBC Arena despite the power outage, and the game still had a full attendance of 18,690.

Effects of the storm were responsible for three fatalities between Thursday night, when the storm hit, and Friday morning, two from automobile accidents, and one from a falling branch. Ten more deaths followed in the first days of the aftermath, some from pre-existing health (usually heart) conditions and other causes, and several from carbon monoxide poisoning. Injuries blamed on the storm and its aftermath numbered in the several hundred and included those from chainsaw accidents and carbon monoxide poisoning due to people running generators inside homes.

Conservative initial damage estimates to clean up the estimated 6 to 8.6 million cubic yards of debris were at least $130 million USD, but even ten days after the storm hit, estimates of the number of tons of debris and the final costs of clearing them were "a moving target". The storm closed the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport for several hours on Thursday, October 12, and again on Friday, October 13, and closed a 100-mile (160-km) stretch of the New York State Thruway for several hours on Friday, October 13. Many, if not most, businesses were closed for at least a few days, and schools for at least a week. Most schools reopened on Monday, October 23, after six consecutive "snow days", but a few in the most heavily affected areas reopened later that week. Affected parts of Erie, Genesee, Orleans and Niagara counties in Western New York were declared a "major disaster" area by President George W. Bush on October 24, 2006.

As many as 90 percent of the city's trees were estimated to be damaged, including many in the city's cherished parks and parkways, which were designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The damage constituted a significant setback to Buffalo's urban reforestation agenda, which had aimed to increase the city's tree canopy from its estimated 2003 levels of 12% to more closely approach the national average of 30%. Buffalo's suburbs, also hard hit by the storm, do have a canopy cover approaching 20 to 30%.

Although the two-foot snow cover melted by October 15, cleanup efforts were impeded in the first days after the storm by the tangle of fallen trees, fallen branches and downed power lines: power grid crews could not reach the downed power lines because of fallen trees, and tree removal crews could not clear debris because of the dangers of the downed power lines. Even after roads were cleared and power was restored, the cleanup and restoration was estimated to take weeks or months.