by Gabriella Borter
(Reuters) – The death toll from a severe winter storm that battered the United States last weekend has risen to 55, according to an NBC News tally.
In Erie County, located in western New York, at least 25 people died over the weekend due to weather, county politician Mark Poloncarz told reporters.
Additional deaths have been reported, he said, adding however that examinations were underway to determine if these deaths were related to the weather.
“We will likely announce additional deaths later today,” Mark Poloncarz said.
The storm carried polar air to the Mexican border. The Buffalo area, the county seat of Erie County, was the hardest hit, recording heavy snowfall that blocked traffic.
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul said the storm, the worst on record since 1977, would go down in history as “The blizzard of 22”.
(Report Gabriella Borter, Kanishka Singh and Susan Heavey; French version Camille Raynaud, edited by Matthieu Protard)
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