As record snows melt, Buffalo area faces threat of flood

BUFFALO -- A flood watch was posted yesterday as the region's record snowfall melted.

About 350,000 homes and businesses in the region still had no electricity, officials said, and many local residents also had no heat.

But there were strides toward recovery. More than a day after almost 2 feet of snow buried western New York, travel bans were lifted, the airport was open, many stores reopened, and the evening's Buffalo Sabres game was on.

However, National Grid still had more than 250,000 customers without power yesterday afternoon, and New York State Electric & Gas reported 104,000 customers still in the dark.

``This is going to be the worst [power failure] we ever had in western New York," said a National Grid spokesman Steve Brady.

Mike Burke, 52, had to go to a restaurant to warm up.

``I spent the night on the couch, dressed a little more heavily than normal -- a sweat shirt, street clothes, with a quilt," Burke said at Daisies restaurant in Lackawanna.

Because temperatures were in the 40s, the snow was melting rapidly and the National Weather Service posted a flood watch.

Buffalo's two snowiest October days on record claimed three lives, two in traffic accidents and one person killed by a falling tree limb while shoveling snow.

Health officials said hospitals had seen dozens of cases of people sickened by carbon monoxide produced by improperly vented stoves and generators.

Governor George E. Pataki and members of the state's congressional delegation asked President Bush to declare a federal emergency in four western counties. If the request is granted, the Federal Emergency Management Agency would reimburse local and state agencies for 75 percent of the total eligible costs for snow and debris removal.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton canceled a trip to Nevada so she could visit the area yesterday with a fellow Democrat, Senator Charles E. Schumer.

Even for Buffalo residents who battle big snows every winter, this one was challenging. Not only was it a surprise (the forecast had called for a few inches), but it came amid lightning and thunder.

Some were cringing at the image the city projected.

``I jinxed it," Thomas Kucharski, chief executive of Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, told The Buffalo News: ``I had just got done commenting how refreshing it was to . . . hear people saying how we had finally, really turned a corner. No one was asking about the weather."