BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — When Buffalo Police Department SWAT Commander Peter Nigrelli thinks back to the Blizzard of 2022, he gets emotional.
"There were instances where individuals perished because of the elements," said Nigrelli. "Just being in a bad place at an awful time."
Vehicles were left stranded all over the city crippled by the snow.
"We were going to vehicles that were in the middle of major intersections, it was just crazy, with vehicles how they were left, the amount of snow," said Nigrelli.
Officials say 46 people died in Erie County.
"There were some that were deceased in their vehicles," said Nigrelli. "We had one or two that were in the elements, they were probably out early in the storm and figured they were going to be able to get to their next destination and they couldn't get that far."
Captain Scott Blesy went around on his snowmobile searching for people who were stranded and recalls coming across a man walking on the side of the street.
"He turned out to be the building engineer from School 32, Montessori School," said Blesy. "I initially asked him 'What's he doing out right now?' and he said I am the engineer, I have to get there, so he got his first snowmobile ride."
Blesy said he has been an officer for 23 years and has never seen a storm like the Blizzard of 2022. He also remembers rescuing people from their vehicles.
"For some reason they thought it was a good idea to go out and try to go to the store," said Blesy. "It was Christmas Eve, they said 'I need to get to the store because it's Christmas Eve and Christmas is tomorrow' they had been sitting there for about three hours."
Nigrelli said all the officers working throughout the storm did whatever they could to save lives.
"One of our guys transported somebody that was on dialysis," said Nigrelli. "It was one of those cases where if this person was in the snow any longer they probably wouldn't have made it."
Nigrelli said it was very surreal to find out the stories of the officers who were stranded for two or three days at a time.
Charles Persons, captain of the Amherst Police Department, said they responded to a thousand calls in four days.
"It's tragic and a lot of that tragedy probably could have been avoided if people just listened to the advance warnings from weather and local media," said Persons.
Officer William Pates was one of many who worked throughout the blizzard.
"There was a young couple who got stuck in their car, they had been stuck there a while, and they decided to try to set off on foot to try to get help and they didn't make it very far," said Pates. "They made it maybe about half a mile and then they just couldn't go any further and they were laying out in the snow. The poor woman, she was wearing open-toed shoes, sandals like flip-flops, and I remember thinking to myself they probably wouldn't last much longer if they had been out there without us being able to get to them."
In the midst of so much tragedy, there are countless stories of people coming together to help each other.
Lieutenant Tom Brown likes to think back to those stories.
"There's the McDonalds at Sheridan and Sweethome — these people got snowed in, stuck at the restaurant, but they were one of the lucky places that actually had heat and electricity. They opened up their doors to people that were stuck," said Brown.
