This week’s weather made history.
Lafayette Square, 5pm on November 19, 2014
Hundreds of businesses closed; hundreds of people were trapped in their homes; dozens of cars were buried.
While downtown Buffalo (my neck of the woods) only saw about 1-2 feet of snow, Cheektowaga and Orchard Park saw record heights of 6+ feet.
Dozens of national news outlets chimed in, adding to Buffalo’s reputation as the snowiest city in America:
- “Buffalo Area Battered Again by Snow, 3 More Feet Expected in Places”
- “Epic snowstorm on track to set a record in Buffalo”
- “Buffalo area braces for more snow”
- “22 dramatic photos of snow wreaking havoc in Buffalo; death toll at 6”
- “Buffalo is buried under 6 feet of snow”
However, those of us actually living in Buffalo had a wildly different perspective.
When you’re here, living through it, you see a lot more than just snow – you see the city of good neighbors in it’s element.
This photo is a perfect depiction of how Buffalonians behave in a storm
Neighbors dug out of their homes to check on the elderly couple down the street; people helped each other dig cars out of snowbanks; strangers on the street stopped and asked if you have a place to stay; friends shared snacks and DVDs to help each other combat cabin-fever.
…there’s a lot of good that happens in Buffalo during the aftermath of the storm that isn’t captured by the media.
Sure, we got a lot of snow… maybe more than we thought we would get for the entire season.
However, what the world doesn’t see is that while the snow may have shut down our city, it didn’t shut down our spirits.
