Buffalo Blizzard of 2022 Highlights Vulnerability for One Segment of Buffalo’s City of “Good Neighbors”

Statement from the Commission to Dismantle Racism and Discrimination

Denise Merriweather and Susan Woods

The blanket of snow that covered the Buffalo region initially masked the differences that exist in one of the most segregated cities in the nation. From the midst of devastation, we are learning about how first responders, neighbors, family members and unrelated good Samaritans assisted one another to survive. As soon as the recovery began, the temporary mindset that life is precious and should be preserved at all costs faded to a mirage. In the aftermath, those who have always been left behind, find themselves to be even further away from stability.

As many of our Buffalo neighbors and beyond braved the harsh conditions of a storm said by some to be the “blizzard of the century,” the greater impact proved to fall most heavily on those battling pre-existing social and economic barriers. On Dec 29, County Executive Mark Poloncarz shared information from the Erie County Medical Examiner’s office. Although black people make up 33% of the people living in Buffalo, they accounted for 51% of those who lost their lives during the storm. Furthermore, National Grid reports two of the five electrical substations that lost power service East Buffalo, the City’s predominately black neighborhood, location of the TOPS Grocery store where 10 people were killed on May 14, 2022 in a tragic, racially motivated shooting.¹

We must ask why did so many East Buffalo residents find their lives threatened in the midst of the treacherous blizzard conditions?  Some of our neighbors perished in their homes or on the street seeking refuge. For others, concern for family members led them to take extraordinary chances to make it home or to leave their homes to seek or offer help. Others with limited financial means were unable to ‘stock up’ on food or personal items despite strong warnings of the impending storm. Others who struggle with asthma and respiratory disease, diabetes or other illness were prone to demise under such stressful conditions and cold temperatures. The Buffalo News reveals the names and circumstances of several who died.²

The death toll sheds light on Buffalo neighborhoods that endure social and economic hardship and limited resources ― substandard housing with inadequate insulation and leaky roofs; environmental exposures that contribute to poor health; lack of easily accessible grocery stores; and dependence on low-wage work and social services that limit the ability to stock up on emergency supplies, to name a few.

The 2001 study, led by Dr. Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr. of the Center for Urban Studies at the University of Buffalo, found no progress over the past three decades for the predominately black neighborhoods of East Buffalo.³ The study examined economic development including employment, income and poverty levels, education, homeownership and housing stock that exposes residents to living conditions that promote poor health. According to Taylor, public policy in the City of Buffalo has marginalized and neglected black communities and neighborhoods while promoting economic development on the waterfront and downtown.

High levels of asthma and respiratory disease among community residents create increased vulnerability under blizzard conditions. Two factors commonly cited for the respiratory disease in East Buffalo are living in poorly ventilated, damp and moldy, cockroach infested substandard housing and living in proximity to toxic exposure from high traffic transportation routes like Rt. 33 and the Peace Bridge Complex.⁴ According to Taylor, “The bottom line is that the houses and neighborhoods in which Blacks live are killing them.”⁵

Each blizzard death may have an immediate explanation – hyperthermia from exposure to the elements or medical equipment failure during a power outage, for example. But another part of the blizzard’s disproportional death toll among East Buffalo’s residents can be attributed to systemic structures that historically devalued the lives and plague the existence of those who are not white. Consequently, emotional, mental and physical stains were enhanced for black residents during this crisis, especially coming in the same year as the tragic loss of lives at the TOPS grocery store killings.

Root problems identified through Taylor’s research read like a laundry list of the structural racism that traps neighborhood residents in continued vulnerability. The study concludes that neighborhood conditions are tied to segregation, limited educational attainment, structural joblessness, low wages, underdevelopment of neighborhoods, gentrification and poor health.⁶

East Buffalo’s disproportional number of lives lost in the Blizzard of 2022 is no coincidence. The pattern is not unique to Buffalo. The devastation is emblematic of the imposed racial hierarchy that exists to segregate, rather than integrate. Racial inequities reflect the structural racism that continues in our communities through public policy and private sector decision-making. What we witnessed during the Blizzard reveals the accumulative outcomes of multiple, long-term public policy and organizational practices that promotes residential segregation, discrimination in employment, education and healthcare, redlining by banks and real estate institutions – to name several.

We grieve the deaths of all people who perished during the Blizzard of 2022. We recognize, as well, the number of lives lost in East Buffalo is disproportionate. The story of the blizzard echoes a similar outcome as the COVID epidemic. Such outcomes cannot be accepted as “normal,” “natural” or “simply how the world works.”  We are called to look more deeply to tell the truth about what we’re witnessing in our communities. Living the Gospel to dismantle racism is asking us for more than opening hearts to reduce prejudice. Racial healing, justice-making and reconciliation calls us all to recognize racial disparities, acknowledge inequity woven deeply into our communities and take action for change.

Note: The descriptor “black” has been purposely written in lowercase. The authors of this essay have considered “black” as a moniker used to identify attributes of a variety of skin tones that are darker than white skin tones. It does not identify a specific place of origin relative to a group of people or their culture, hence its use in lowercase.

¹ Spetch (Jan. 1, 2023, “How cascading failure hit some neighborhoods harder,” The Buffalo News https://buffalonews.com/how-cascading-failure-hit-some-neighborhoods-harder/article_62e981ec-2b71-5d90-b877-1f496fddb216.html 

________(Nov 1,2022; updated Jan. 11,2023) “10 Killed, 3 Wounded in Mass Shooting at Buffalo Supermarket.” The Buffalo News  https://buffalonews.com/news/local/complete-coverage-10-killed-3-wounded-in-mass-shooting-at-buffalo-supermarket/collection_e8c7df32-d402-11ec-9ebc-e39ca6890844.html

²McAndrew (Jan 13, 2023; updated Jan. 14. 2023) “Newly identified people who died in the Buffalo blizzard’” The Buffalo News https://buffalonews.com/news/local/newly-identified-people-who-died-in-the-buffalo-blizzard/article_cf2d8140-91de-11ed-9394-eb5bc41cb31f.html

³Taylor, Jung and Dash (September 2021) “The Harder We Run: The State of Black Buffalo in 1990 and the Present: A Report to the Buffalo Center for Health Equity,” UB Center for Urban Studies School of Architecture and Planning and UB Community Health Equity Institute http://centerforurbanstudies.ap.buffalo.edu/news-items/the-harder-we-run/

⁴Magavern, Armstrong and Webster (Feburary 6, 2009) “Missing the Target: How Economic Development Programs Have Failed Buffalo’s Most Challenged Neighborhoods,” Program for the Public Good https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/economic_development/policies_and_programs/economicdevelopment-_missing_the_target.pdf

Black Leadership Forum (September 2000) “The Health Status of the East Side Black Community: A Study of the Wellness and Neighborhood Conditions, Buffalo NY,” UB Center for Urban Studies School of Architecture and Planning and UB Center for Research in Primary Care https://ubwp.buffalo.edu/aps-cus/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2015/04/EastSideHealthStudy.pdf

⁵Taylor et al, “The Harder We Run”

⁶Taylor et al, “The Harder We Run”