Top Buffalo official shoulders blame for late blizzard travel ban

The top official in New York’s Erie County said Wednesday that he takes full responsibility for issuing a travel ban that many residents have criticized for coming too late to stop people from driving during the brunt of last week’s historic blizzard.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz tweeted that he does not know whether instituting the ban earlier “would have changed anything but it was my decision and I bear full responsibility.”

The county, which contains Buffalo, announced a travel ban shortly before 9 a.m. Friday, giving motorists a 41-minute heads-up as many of them were driving to work. The ban went into effect minutes before 79 mph winds struck the area. The timing of the ban has become one of the flash points as Western New York grapples with the aftermath of a storm that took the lives of at least 37 people in Erie County.

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Although county officials had been imploring people to stay home and for businesses to close, those were merely advisories. Last Thursday, a day before the storm, some residents were begging the top emergency official to enact a ban, with more than a dozen people across Facebook and Twitter posting and responding to Poloncarz’s updates that they would still be forced to work given the mad rush of the holiday weekend.

Earlier that morning, “life-threatening conditions” and “dangerously strong” winds were encroaching on Buffalo, according to forecasts. In his news conference early Friday, Poloncarz drove home how dangerous the blizzard was going to be. Only twice in his tenure had the National Weather Service indicated a weather event would have an “extreme impact,” he said. Six minutes after the ban went into effect, Poloncarz shared on Facebook that the Weather Service in Buffalo had recorded 72 and 79 mph winds in the area. Nearly 13,000 people had already lost power.

The executive’s comment is the latest development in the mounting scrutiny over how officials prepared for a historic blizzard that they spent ample time warning residents about but seemingly did not properly prepare them for.

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In a news conference Wednesday, Poloncarz said officials deciding on when to issue the driving ban weighed projections indicating the storm band would not hit until midmorning and the need for overnight shift workers to be able to get home. “If anyone’s to be blamed, you can blame me,” he said. “I’m the one who has to make the final call on behalf of the county.”

He also slammed Buffalo leaders for failing to quickly and efficiently plow streets so that people could get out of their homes and get food and heat. And he accused Mayor Byron W. Brown’s administration of being absent in the coordinated local and state response, saying no one from the city has attended any of their daily calls for elected officials.

The county ended up taking over the cleanup efforts for a third of Buffalo, Poloncarz said, and is in discussions with state officials about handling all plowing for the city during future large storms.

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“The mayor is not going to be happy to hear about it, but storm, after storm, after storm, after storm — the city, unfortunately, is the last one to be opened, and that shouldn’t be the case,” Poloncarz said. “It’s embarrassing, to tell you the truth.”

Brown has deflected Poloncarz’s admonishments and defended his handling of the blizzard preparation and response. In an interview Wednesday, Brown said he gets people’s frustration, anger and fear but stuck to his narrative that his constituents were “adequately prepared” and “adequately notified.”

“Everything that could have been done in the lead-up to the storm and during the storm was done,” the mayor said.

Residents, however, do not feel that way.

In response to Poloncarz’s tweet addressing his decision about issuing the ban, people on Twitter again shared their anger and frustration.

“It absolutely could have changed everything,” one user replied, going on to explain that people had already left for work or to buy supplies when the ban was announced. “If the ban had been done the day before & all business didn’t even open Friday, this wouldn’t have happened.”

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