By Claire Cardona —
NBC News
The travel ban was lifted in New York's deadliest area, Erie County, after nearly a week of snowstorms.
The ban, which went into effect last Friday, expired at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, authorities said.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told reporters Wednesday night that
the roads were in good enough condition to lift the ban.
“It's been six days,” Brown said, “some people haven't been able to restock on food, restock on medicine, get to medical appointments.
Lifting the travel ban now will allow people to do those important things."
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Most
of the city's streets are passable,
Brown added, saying he expected crews to have passed through the center of each residential street by the end of the night.
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Although the ban has been lifted, a travel advisory has been issued for Erie County as cleanup continues and a countywide state of emergency is maintained.
Brown asked people to
be careful and avoid driving unless necessary.
More than 450 crews were on the streets of Buffalo plowing and hauling snow, and many traffic signals were still not working, he warned.
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The storm dumped more than 20 inches of snow on some parts of New York — including nearly 52 inches at Buffalo-Niagara International Airport, according to the National Weather Service.
The airport, which had been closed since Friday, reopened on Wednesday.
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The powerful storm plunged much of the United States into a deep freeze, creating life-threatening conditions for more than a million homes and businesses that were left in the dark, and wreaking havoc on flight schedules during the busy weekdays. vacation travel week.
At least
76 people were killed
in the storm, according to an NBC News tally, 37 of them in Erie County, including 29 in Buffalo, where authorities warned the number is likely to rise.
Weather-related deaths were also reported in Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, Michigan, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Vermont.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said late Wednesday that police have resolved the backlog of calls related to wellness checks, stranded motorists and body reports.
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Search-and-rescue teams returned Thursday to check places where bodies had been reported but could not be confirmed, either due to the amount of snow or vague locations, Gramaglia said.
"We believe there were some credible 911 calls that contained more information ... low single digit numbers, which is why we are going to focus our efforts on reaching those areas," he told reporters.
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In Erie County, 17 of the people who died in the blizzard were found outdoors and four were in a vehicle, according to County Executive Mark Poloncarz.
Several people died due to the delay in the arrival of the emergency services or from heart problems related to snow removal.
Of the deaths,
nine were people who did not have heat in their homes
.
A person clears the snow after the storm in Buffalo, New York, this Wednesday. Jeffrey T. Barnes / AP
Poloncarz said Wednesday night on Twitter that 500 members of the National Guard had conducted nearly 850 wellness checks on residents suffering from long-term power outages.
Power was being restored in New York, and as of early Thursday, only a few customers in the state were without power, according to PowerOutage.us.
In Buffalo, where more than 20,000 customers lost power at any given time during the storm, only three lost power Wednesday night, according to Brown, the mayor.
The city's offices, facilities and highways were open Wednesday as temperatures climbed into the 40s in some parts of the state.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said late Wednesday that all major state highways in western New York would reopen at midnight, including the Erie County portion of Interstate 190 and several state routes.
“I am extremely grateful to all of the highway maintenance workers, first responders and first responders who continue to work tirelessly to help their fellow New Yorkers,” Hochul said in a statement.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures are expected to continue to rise to as low as 50 degrees below zero in the Buffalo region on Friday, which will help melt packed snow.