Officials in New York are now confirming that 39 people have died in the Christmas weekend winter storm that swept through Buffalo and its surrounding areas.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, in a series of tweets Thursday, said 31 of the deaths occurred in the city of Buffalo itself, while the others happened in the towns of Amherst and Cheektowaga and the villages of Williamsville and Depew.
"[Seventeen] were found outside, 11 were in homes, 4 were found in cars, 4 were from shoveling/snowblowing, 3 were delayed EMS responses," he tweeted.
Poloncarz said preliminary estimates show his county in western New York has spent $5 million so far on private contractors to help with the storm cleanup, $1 million of which was devoted to the city of Buffalo alone on Wednesday.
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"Crews' equipment is going through 2,000 gallons of fuel every 4 hours," he added.
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An emergency operations center set up to deal with the storm will be winding down tonight, according to Poloncarz, but he said there is "still a lot of work to be done."
"The National Guard and our emergency crews will remain in the area and on the roads, so please make sure to give them room -- some of these vehicles are very large and not typically on regular streets," he wrote.
The Erie County Sheriff's Office and "all county departments will be doing an evaluation of resources and action plans to make sure every response is always better than the last one," Poloncarz also said.
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