Kimberly Stolar was glad to be off the roads in Erie, Pa., on Saturday. Not that she had much choice: She couldn’t open her front door, no matter how hard she pushed against an estimated 50 inches of snow that had drifted over. She knew her S.U.V. was somewhere in her driveway, but she couldn’t tell exactly where.
“I’m just trying today to ignore the fact that I can’t get out of my house, and just be thankful for what I have in my house,” said Ms. Stolar, 33, an Erie native who said this storm was the worst that she could recall.
More than two feet of snow blanketed western New York and Pennsylvania on Saturday, with some parts getting more than three feet, as a lake-effect snowstorm disrupted post-Thanksgiving travel and stranded dozens of vehicles on highways. The storm threatened to bring up to six feet of snow to some areas by Tuesday morning.
More than five million residents across eight states — Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia — were under winter weather advisories as of 2 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. More than three million residents in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York were under lake-effect snow warnings.
The Weather Service said snowfall on Saturday was heaviest along Interstate 90, which hugs Lake Erie from Buffalo through Pennsylvania and on to Cleveland. Erie and parts of northern Michigan, eastern Ohio and western New York received around 30 inches of snow or more, the agency said. National Guard troops were dispatched in New York and Pennsylvania.