New York State Honors Buffalo Blizzard Heroes

We're still dealing with the aftermath of the massive winter storm that ravaged large parts of the country and left a tremendous impact on Buffalo and Western New York.

That storm, which was named Winter Storm Elliott in national weather coverage, left more than 60 people dead and caused millions of dollars in damage across the country also left a huge mark on our area. When it was all said and done, the hurricane-force winds that fed the Buffalo Blizzard of 2022 dumped a few feet of snow on Western New York, left thousands without power for several days, and took at least 47 lives in Western New York.

The storm was a tragic reminder of how dangerous winter weather can be, especially for a community that found itself unprepared to deal with the intensity of mother nature.

While the storm left a huge mark on the Buffalo area, there were many instances of extreme heroism that showed itself during the entire storm. For years Buffalo has been called the City of Good Neighbors and this was proven by many people in the area during the storm. So much so that New York Governor Kathy Hochul had a ceremony on the campus of Buffalo State University to highlight the great and positive things that were done by everyday people during the storm.

Today we'll focus on heroism and what that means. What does it mean to be a hero? It means knocked down and get up... So, we talk about those, again, we lost, but the stories of those citizens who did the extraordinary, shared their homes, put themselves in danger, shared a meal...
-Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York State

Governor Hochul, who was joined by Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, and several other officials, handed out awards and honored some of the best people we have in the 716.

Congratulations to all of those who were honored. You can watch the entire ceremony below: