When, in February 2021, the temperatures in parts of Texas dropped to the low teens, crashing the power infrastructure, officials were at a loss dealing with a problem that they simply hadn’t had before and people died as a result. The same was true later that year in the Pacific Northwest as temperatures hit 115 degrees, baking Oregon and Washington to the point that cables literally melted and roads buckled in a region where most homes don’t have A/C and people died as a result.
The same cannot be said for officials responsible for the safety of typically snowbound western New York, which was rocked by a blizzard that caused a staggering death toll of at least 39.
Yes, the blizzard dumped heavy snow on Buffalo, totaling about 4 feet and it came faster and harder than perhaps was expected. Still, 31 people dead in the city of Buffalo, with a population of about 280,000, would be equivalent to a death toll of 1,000 in New York City, a gigantic catastrophe that demands a thorough examination of what went wrong and who failed.
