Anndel Taylor, 22, is one of 50 victims of what authorities are calling the “blizzard of the century” hitting the United States and Canada. She died stranded in her car, in Buffalo, New York, a city particularly damaged by this historic storm.
Last Friday, Anndel Taylor worked from 6 am to 2 pm in the nearby town, where she was training as a nurse. The driving ban was issued at 9 am, when the young woman was already at work.
Anndel Taylor left work 20 minutes early to escape in the blizzard, however, it was still trapped in the considerable amount of snow that had already fallen in the area. She was minutes from her house when her car got stuck.
In an interview with the New York Post on Tuesday, Anndel Taylor’s mother-in-law declared that the young nurse would still be alive if the authorities had been better prepared.
“Probably a lot of lives could have been saved if they had imposed the travel ban the night before,” Laneesha Smith said.
Laneesha Smith explains that her daughter-in-law has called for help many times, and her family members have done the same. They also tried to take her vehicle to pick her up but couldn’t reach her because of the snow.
“The emergency services kept telling her that they were going to try to locate her, but nothing. They never got it,” laments Laneesha Smith.
According to county official Mark Poloncarz, the snow and wind were so heavy and visibility so poor that help could not move normally, particularly due to the many vehicles blocked on the road.
“They said they were prepared for this storm, but they were not prepared for this storm,” the victim’s mother-in-law said.
The body was recovered two days later.
The latter account New York Post that the last time he heard from Anndel Taylor was shortly after noon on Christmas Eve and that she seemed fine. The young woman has also sent videos of the snow around her car to her relatives.
“He had a half tank of gas left, so he was going to run the car for a while, then turn it off and back on again,” says Laneesha Smith. When she called her daughter-in-law later, she was no longer answering the phone.
He adds that the following day, Saturday, the emergency services did not pick up the young woman, although a passerby reported the presence of her inert body in the car. Consequently, it was her relatives who came to recover the victim’s body on Sunday.
Source: BFM TV
