Stories from

Notre Dame beat Medina in its opening-round game of the Lion's Tournament at GCC on Tuesday, 67-37.

No stats are available for the game.

Photos by Pete Welker.

In the second game, Oakfield-Alabama will advance to the small-school championship game at GCC tomorrow after beating Elba in the Lion's Tournament, 69-39.

For the Hornets:

• Kyle Porter, 21 points
• Brayden Smith, 14 points, 7 assists
• Colton Yasses, 10 points, 8 rebounds

For the Lancers:

• Connor Scott, 9 points
• Jake Walczak, 10 points
• Angelo Penna, 7 points

O-A is now 5-1 and Elba is 3-4.

"I was proud of the effort of the boys tonight, especially on the defensive end," said Head Coach Ryan Stehlar. "We had a tough matchup against a well-coached league team in Elba and had to be ready to go early.  I was proud of our bench for stepping up when we needed them, as well.  Overall, it was a good team win."

Photos by Kristin Smith. For more, click here.

This is a story that should be told in black and white, like an old Hollywood screen gem about a Christmas miracle, the small town banding together against adverse conditions, saving a bunch of strangers from some dread uncertain fate as the winds howled and the snow blew on a moonless night.

But you won't find this story on Turner Classic Movies. 

This story doesn't star Jimmy Stewart.

This is the story of the Town of Alabama responding to an unexpected crisis caused by an epic storm, some unplanned turns prompted by current technology and a few broad assumptions travelers made about what to anticipate down the road.

The central characters are Joe Bradt, Brian Kotarski, Craig Alexander, and Bonnie Woodward, along with a supporting cast of rescue crews and of Alabama residents who donated blankets, air mattresses and toys to help about 140 people from all over North America who found themselves stranded in their small town during the most powerful blizzard to hit Western New York since 1977.

Our setting is a wood-framed, two-story building that has provided warmth, comfort, and perhaps a few libations to weary travelers for 182 years. That's why it's still called the Alabama Hotel.

That word hotel might explain why, when motorists found they could go no further in the midst of Winter Storm Elliott, they came to the intersection of Lewiston Road and Alleghany Road seeking shelter.

That's where they found Bradt willing to open the door to all who knocked.

"I would say that 80 percent of the people that walked through the front door, the first question was, 'Do you have any rooms around?' And I'm like, 'We're not really a hotel. We're a restaurant, but come in, let us feed you and let us keep you warm,'" Bradt said.

I'll Be Home for Christmas
Friday was supposed to be a regular work day for Bradt, Alabama Hotel owner Bonnie Woodward, and the rest of the staff, except that it would be the last day before closing for the week for Christmas and New Year's.

Bradt, the restaurant's general manager, got a call from Woodward as he drove to work on Friday morning. She wanted to discuss the forecast. She asked Bradt, "what are your thoughts?"

"I said, 'Man, I don't know. You know, last time, they weren't right about the forecast, but it doesn't sound like they're playing around.'"

For the safety of their employees, Woodward and Bradt decided to keep the doors closed on Friday and reopen as planned on Jan. 4, so Bradt continued on to work and proceed to secure the building and supplies for the planned closure.

When he was done, "I loaded up the Jeep with my Christmas dinner and Bonnie's Christmas dinner, which I was going to drop off at her house, and left here about 12:30. I didn't get a quarter mile up the road, and there was no visibility. The roads were completely covered, and there was already an accident right here. 

"I immediately turned around and said the safest place I can be is here for now. You know, I'll just wait it out here. No sooner did I put the key in the back door and unlock the back door than people were knocking on the front door. That didn't stop for two days."

The weather outside was vicious.  Heavy, lake-effect snow blown around by 35 mph winds with 70 mph gusts. The roads were no place for anybody in any type of vehicle, let alone people unfamiliar with the area in sedans, minivans and luxury SUVs. 

But when the Thruway authority decided to close the I-90 with no plan to direct travelers to safe routes, and Google and Apple proving incapable of warning drivers of hazardous conditions ahead, drivers who plotted Canada into their smartphones did what Siri or Googlebot told them to do: hop on Route 63 or Route 77 and head toward Niagara County.  Right into the worst of the blizzard.

They didn't get far.

Buffeted by high winds and snow moving vertically across their windshields, drivers couldn't see the end of their hoods, let alone the roadway, and motorists became stranded up and down the state highways (if this were a black and white movie, we would mention "hood ornament" and cut to a shiny chrome object weaving through a field of white while trombones honk ominous tones).

Holiday Inn
Some made it on their own as far as Lewiston and Alleghany. Others were brought there by rescue teams or area residents. All of them were a lot better off sheltered from the elements with hot meals and warm blankets.

Shortly after Bradt opened the doors to all who showed up on the restaurant's front porch, he was joined by Brian Kotarski, who lives just a bit more than a mile down the road but thought that as long as his wife and small children had power, they were safe, and he wouldn't necessarily be safe if he tried to make it home, and his friend Joe and all these people at the Alabama Hotel needed help.

Kotarski has no training in the hospitality industry. None. Nada.  He owns a construction company.

"I've never cooked," Kotarski said. "Never. I've always been on the other side of the bar or in the dining room. It was definitely a new experience, you know, cooking on the grill and serving at the bar. You know, I've never done that before."

But he quickly became Bradt's right-hand man.

They were joined by Craig Alexander, the co-owner of Holly Farms, the small grocery store across the street famous for its meat counter.

For the next 48 hours, the three of them led the effort to keep all of the unexpected visitors well nourished.

Bradt said they started off with a buffet of chicken and biscuits because that was something that could be put out quickly and was an easy self-serve meal, giving them time to plan their next move. 

They made chili for dinner, another easy meal.

"We didn't sleep over that whole 48 hours," Bradt said. "When everybody settled down that first night, we dimmed the lights at probably 11 o'clock  and Brian and I walked in the kitchen and were like, 'hey, what's next?' And next is breakfast. And we're like, what do we have? So we started going through the freezer. We pulled 20 pounds of bacon, 20 pounds of sausage, Brian stood over the grill and made 350 pancakes.  When these guys got up between six and seven, we had the buffet set up."

There was no worry about supplies, Bradt said. Not only was the restaurant well stocked, but with Alexander's help, there was a ready pantry of meal ingredients less than 50 yards away.

"He didn't even think twice," Bradt said. "Like, 'what are we going to eat next?' 'Roast beef.' 'I'll be right back,' and he goes next door and comes back with 40 pounds of roast beef. Those guys were a godsend to us."

Alexander is on the quiet side, and when interviewed, he said he was happy to help and "it was a fine Christmas."

It's a Wonderful Life
Everybody that made it to Alabama Hotel signed in so there would be a record of who was safe in case somebody wanted to go looking for them.  Looking at that list, Bradt notes, "there are people from Canada, New Jersey, Niagara Falls, LA, Toronto, Ohio, Delaware; there's a few from Shelby and Oakfield and Lancaster, but 75 percent of the people that were here were from out of the state."

There was never a thought about charging these travelers for lodging, such as it was, or food.

Bradt doesn't have an exact estimate of how much serving all those people, all that food, cost the restaurant. He's told national media outlets -- yes, the Alabama Hotel's Christmas hospitality has become national news -- it cost about $5,000. He said the price is somewhere between $4,000 and $6,000. But who's counting?

The lodging consisted of people pulling chairs together to sleep on, or sleeping on the floor or finding space upstairs.  Families with kids got the somewhat remodeled rooms upstairs, including the ones with a couple of couches.

Blankets and air mattresses came courtesy of a few of the residents in the hamlet.

"One lady down the street, she put on her snowsuit, she grabbed two sleds out of her garage, and she strapped totes and bags of blankets and air mattresses to them," Bradt said. "She literally came with flashlights on her forehead, trudging through the blizzard right up to our front door and was like, 'Here's some supplies.' That continued on for the whole two days. Just random people walking here with supplies."

When travelers didn't have blankets, they grabbed eight-foot long table cloths.

"I've never seen so many people from so many different nationalities in one place," Bradt said. "And all they cared about was each other. There was no politics. There was no arguing. There was no fighting. It was just, 'how do I help the person next to me?'"

Kotarski added, "It's pretty humbling to have that many people, no arguments. If somebody needs something, somebody figured it out."

There were two Canadian families with teenagers who became the bus and wait staff.

"They pitched in as if they knew me and Joe forever," Kotarski said. "They were washing dishes, cleaning up out here. I mean, there was one burden we didn't have to worry about. They catered to everybody. They made coffee the whole time, tea the whole time."

Bradt interjected, "The only time they came to us was to ask, 'where is this? Where is more toilet paper? Where is more coffee?'"

If you've followed the story this far, you may have noticed the meals being prepared were pretty heavy on meat -- chicken and beef. That's our next plot complication. In a group of travelers, not everybody is going to eat animals.

That soon became another problem that solved itself.

"Somebody came up and said, 'We're from Canada, and we're Indian, and we are vegetarians,' Bradt said. "And I'm like, I am not a chef. I'm not sure what to make. So we opened the salad bar. They're saying, 'Hey, what do you have for vegetarian options? And I said, 'What I have is I have a lot of ingredients.' And they were like, 'do you mind if we come back there and cook?'  It was absolutely mindblowing. Mindblowing."

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
When Christmas Eve rolled around, Bradt mentioned to an Alabama resident that they had 10 kids in the group.  Pretty soon, people were showing up with wrapped presents, wrapped toys, so the kids would have something to open on Christmas morning.

Woodward didn't venture from her home during the storm, but Bradt stayed in contact and let her know what was going on, and on Christmas Eve, he wondered what he should do for their patrons.

"I called her at about 4:30, and I said, 'Listen, we've served chicken and biscuits. We've served chili. We've served pizza. We've served wings, breakfasts, roast beef, I mean, you name it, we served it.' I said, 'Well, how do we make Christmas Eve special for 115 people that are here together? And she said, 'I want you to walk out to our walk-in cooler and I want you to take out the 60 pounds of prime rib that is in there. I want you to make a prime rib dinner.'"

So that's what Bradt did.

"We didn't just make prime rib and throw it out there," Bradt said. "We made it special. We served them. I stood right there at the end of the table and carved the prime rib as each person came up, and the first thing they did was stop and take a photograph. Everything we did, there was clapping and excitement, and we just really made the best of it, you know, absolutely made the best of it. It's definitely a Christmas that none of us -- that none of them -- will ever forget."

At about 3:30 in the morning on Christmas Day, Bradt ventured out and could see things were starting to clear up, and he knew that pretty soon it would be time for him and all these people who had bonded over meals at the Alabama Hotel to head home.

In the morning, Bradt started giving people a ride in his Jeep to the travel center, to Oakfield-Alabama, to side roads, wherever their cars were parked. When he dropped them off, they would try to stuff money in his pockets. He would refuse but they would persist.

"I got home and started talking to my family, and I was like, 'oh, yeah,' so I started emptying my pockets out onto the dining room table."

He counted $1,700.

There was another $300 left in the restaurant's tip jar.

"I called Bonnie, and I'm like, 'this isn't my money,' Bradt said. "This money is coming back to the restaurant, and we're gonna find a way to use it. On the way here today, I was thinking, 'You know what, maybe we use some of that money to go out and buy 100 blankets, you know, and set up upstairs so we can be prepared.' Hopefully, we never need them."

Then his thought shifted.

"It's been a very, very humbling, very humbling experience. These are the times when you figure out who your friends are and who's got your back."

And that's how the story ends, it seems, with more than 100 holiday travelers who passed through a small town in Upstate New York on Friday and Saturday to find out that total strangers can be their friends just when they might need them the most.

Photos: Inset photo of Joe Bradt and Brian Kotarski by Howard Owens. All other photos courtesy of Alabama Hotel.

A message left on a social media post by Alabama Hotel.

Merritt Holly, Jr., unloaded on Attica for 27 points on Tuesday evening in the opening game of the 2022 Lions Tournament at GCC to lead Le Roy to a 48-30 win over Attica.

Jean Agosto scored 12 points for the Oatkan Knights.

Cole Harding scored 18 points for the Blue Devils.

Other opening-round games today:

• Elba vs. Oakfield-Alabama (started at 5:15 p.m.)
• Medina vs. Notre Dame (started at 6:30 p.m.)
• Roy-Hart vs. Batavia (starts at 8 p.m.)

On Thursday, the small school championship game is at 6:30 p.m. and the large school championship game is at 8 p.m.  Both games are being played at GCC.

To view or purchase photos, click here.

Photos by Steve Ognibene

The Batavian was out in Oakfield and Alabama today for follow-up stories for Winter Storm Elliott (watch for more coverage over the next day or so) and we stopped a few times for storm-related photos along Judge Road (Route 63).

Above, a snow-covered residence at Judge and Wight roads, Alabama.

Photos by Howard Owens.

A motor vehicle accident with possible injuries is reported in the area of 7914 Lewiston Road, Batavia, which is just south of Galloway Road.

Town of Batavia Fire and Mercy EMS dispatched.

UPDATE 6:50 p.m.: Both lanes are blocked.

UPDATE 6:51 p.m.: No injuries.

UPDATE 7:09 p.m.: Fire police are stopping traffic.  "We just had one blow through. An orange Jeep." "Yeah, they're not going anywhere."

Photo by Kristin Smith

Amber M. King of Rochester was quite impressed by how well the management of Dennys at the Flying J in Pembroke treated stranded motorist during the blizzard on Friday and Saturday.

"I was stranded there for two days after trying to get back to Rochester," she told The Batavian in an email. "There were more than 150 people sitting inside at any given time from New Hampshire, Nova Scotia, Toronto,  Queens, Pennsylvania and many other locations. They provided us with a place to eat, stay warm, to close our eyes for a bit or use the bathroom.

"The staff at both places busted their butts to help in any way they could, but mostly to keep us safe."

She said many in the group tried to repay the kindness by helping with dishes, clearing tables, taking out trash and keeping the coffee flowing.

"I'm grateful to them all; many of us are," she said.

She sent us the info so the staff could receive a public "thank you." 

"A few of their names are Juanita, Jenni, Johnny from Denny's and Todd at the Flying J, Nikki and all the other crew," she said. "They kept the pumps cleared so we could always get gas to keep cars running so we could sleep. The sidewalks cleared so we could get in and out. They were even pet-friendly so the doggies wouldn't freeze. There were maybe 10 employees running the whole place, and they did a great job."

Submitted photos.

Snow scene photos from Alabama by Kristen Smith

 

A rollover accident is reported at 1081 Lewiston Road, Alabama.

Entrapment reported.

Alabama Fire Dispatched.

UPDATE 2:47 p.m.: Oakfield is assisting with Alabama's call. Town of Batavia to fill-in for Oakfield.  An Oakfield responder also reported a vehicle off the road near Bliss Road.

UPDATE 2:49 p.m.: All occupants are out of the vehicle and in a nearby residence. The vehicle is on its roof.  Traffic control requested. "I've got tons of cars here."

UPDATE 2:52 p.m.: There were three people in the vehicle. One minor injury. All units can continue non-emergency.

A house is reportedly filling with smoke at 7736 Lewiston Road, Batavia.

No flames showing.

Town of Batavia dispatched with mutual aid from Oakfield.

UPDATE 1:59 p.m.: A chief on scene reports nothing showing, house evacuated.

UPDATE 2:10 p.m.: An interior crew reports no smoke in the basement.

UPDATE 2:45 p.m.: No fire.

At 2 a.m. in the early morning after Christmas, City of Batavia workers were out and about Downtown clearing away snow from streets, sidewalks, and parking lots.

A loader is reported on fire in a hay barn at 9290 York Road, Le Roy.

Le Roy Fire and Pavilion Fire are dispatched.

UPDATE 2:23 p.m. Second alarm. Engine from City of Batavia, Stafford, Pavilion and Bergen all requested to the scene. The closest hydrant is East Main at York.

UPDATE 2:30 p.m.: The loader has been moved from the barn. The fire in the barn is out.

UPDATE 2:31 p.m.: The assignment can be held to what is currently on the road. Second alarm responding units canceled. 

New closers and cancellations are being announced.  For the previous list, click here. Email your closures and cancellations to news@thebatavian.com

• Empire Tractor is closed today
• Northgate Church to cancel Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Services Scheduled services that were to take place on Saturday and Sunday at Northgate Church (8160 Bank Street Road) and Arbor House (350 Bank St) have been canceled due to travel bans and current weather conditions. There will be an online service available beginning at 5 p.m. on Friday. To view the online service, visit northgatefmc.com or Facebook.com/northgatefmc
• Batavia First Presbyterian Church. With the continued storm and travel ban in our county, we have made the decision to cancel in-person worship and go to an online option. The online Christmas worship will go live at 7 pm today, December 24. It will have a mix of prayers, readings, and music. Here is the link to use: https://www.facebook.com/fpcbatavia/videos/.
• The East Bethany Presbyterian Church Candlelight Service scheduled for tonight at 7 p.m. is canceled. 
• Services at St. Padre Pio Parish are canceled tonight and tomorrow.
• Byron Presbyterian Church has canceled tonight's and tomorrow's services.
• All Christmas masses canceled at Resurrection Parish 
• Buffalo Niagara International Airport is closed until 11 a.m. Monday.
• St. Paul's UCC Attica has canceled Christmas Eve services at 11 p.m. tonight.

The National Weather Service is predicting that a large band of lake effect snow that also already dumped several feet of snow on Alabama and Oakfield is going to move south into the Center of Genesee County, including the City of Batavia.

In response, City Manager Rachael Tabelski has declared a state of emergency for the city.

The Local State of Emergency has been declared due to hazardous weather conditions, high winds, and increasing snowfall accumulation. This order also includes a travel ban on all City of Batavia Streets and a parking ban across the city.

The order is in effect for five days or until it is lifted by the City Manager.

It is a Class B misdemeanor to disobey the order.

So far, it might be classified as a Christmas miracle, said County Manager Matt Landers.

With dozens of people trapped in vehicles for hours and cars all around Oakfield and Alabama buried in up to five feet of snow, emergency crews have yet to uncover any fatalities.

County Highway Superintendent Tim Hens said with hours of the storm yet to weather, and emergency responders working around the clock, he's still nervous about people's safety, but he, too, is hoping for a Christmas miracle.

Hens spent all night with County Highway workers running heavy loaders with big plows attached ahead of convoys of search and rescue crews, and he said the situation is the worst he's seen in his life.

"It is frustrating because we knew people really needed to help, and he just couldn't get to him," Hens said. "It seemed like no matter which way we went, whatever road we went down or whatever piece of equipment we took, it just was zero visibility. I mean, you could literally not see past the hood of your own car. Even though we had loaders with huge blades on them, and the Sheriff's were using MRAPs, the military vehicles that they've acquired, and we had tracked vehicles and groomers that are used for snowmobile trails and things like that, you just couldn't see where you're going. It was just extremely frustrating and scary."

Hens said in those conditions -- strong winds, zero visibility, 20 degrees below zero with windchill, a person outside without protective gear couldn't last long.

"You just can't see where you're going," Hens said. "It's disorienting. It's cold. The wind is ripping right through everything you've got on. Like I said, every little hair on your body accumulates ice and snow. If you didn't have goggles on, you're out of luck. The one time I jumped out (of my truck) to put a strap on a truck to pull somebody out, I forgot to put my goggles on, my eyelashes froze together. That was interesting."

While many people have been rescued, there's no way of knowing how many people haven't been rescued, hence the hope for a miracle. 

"I'm still relatively nervous about it because, I mean, there's still a lot of cars that have not been found yet," Hens said. "So there are still people in cars that have been there for a long time. There is the possibility that people got out of their cars and went looking for their own help, to a neighboring house or something like that and like I said, it is so disorienting. If you got out of your car last night, you wouldn't have known that there could have been a house 20 feet from you, and you wouldn't have seen it."

A large number of cars being located after getting stuck on Route 77, Route 63, Ledge Road, Judge Road, etc., have Canadian or out-of-state license plates. That's a factor of the state closing the Thruway and motorists relying on Google or Apple maps.  They got no warning that there was a travel ban in place or that a blizzard was passing over the very routes Google and Apple were suggesting.

"We probably would have had to have dealt with 30 or 40 cars, maybe, of our own people," Landers said. "But now we're having a couple of hundred cars. This is the GPS that was sending everybody right through Route 63, Route 77, right through the heart of the worst of the storm."

Landers said he isn't pointing a finger at the state.  He understands the need to close the Thruway, but there needs to be a better plan, and the state needs to lean on GPS mappers so that the maps do a better job of warning drivers of critically dangerous conditions.

"The solution can't simply be close the Thruway, and now it's a free for all into the small communities like Genesee County, Alabama and Oakfield," Landers said. "So it's something that I have reached out with the state about this morning. And again, it's not to be pointing the finger. It's just a matter that we have to learn from this because this situation was exasperated multiple times over by the fact that we get people from Los Angeles, people from Ohio, people from all over the place going on our back roads."

Hens said he hopes the governor's office will lean on Google to fix its technology.

"A lot of Canadians we talked to last night said, 'I was following my Google Map. I was following my Google Map, and I saw the red lines on the Google Map for traffic, and we just thought it was a traffic jam,'" Hens said. "They didn't know it was a lake effect snow band. And most people have never been in a lake effect snow band, so they didn't even know what it's like."

There are still hundreds of personnel -- volunteers and paid staff -- out on search and rescue missions.

Landers praised their dedication, hard work, and willingness to put their own safety at risk to help others.

He also marveled at all the residents and business owners who have been open to provide food and shelter to stranded travelers.  He said the county's human resources director, Anita Cleveland, took in a family of five overnight after the deputy who rescued them had become stuck in the snow.

Currently, there are 11 warming shelters open, and they are caring for 582 people.

"It's all hands on deck," Landers said.

And it's not over.

While the large lake effect snow band that hovered over Alabama and Oakfield most of the night has moved north, giving rescues some respite to get their work done, it's expected to drive south again, not only passing over those communities again but also into Batavia.

"The band is forecast to slowly move south across the county, I think, beginning about two or three o'clock this afternoon and will be kind of centered around the county, more of a traditional Airport, Batavia, kind of alignment for most of the afternoon and early evening from what the National Weather Service says," Hens said. "With snowfall rates of one to two inches an hour, so I would say from my experience, Darien, Pembroke, Alexander, and Batavia will take the brunt of it from a severity standpoint, and then it'll taper off. It looks like conditions will deteriorate for most of the center part of the county later this afternoon."

With the storm expected to last well into the night and perhaps into Sunday morning, Hens isn't just nervous about the safety of people out on the roads, he's nervous about remaining operations. People are tired and equipment is being heavily used.

"I'm just nervous that we're gonna have equipment breaking," Hens said. "You know, we've been using it pretty heavy now for 24 hours straight in some pretty wicked conditions. ... I'm nervous that someone's gonna get hurt or equipment is gonna get broken, and then we're going to have the band come back through, and we're going to be caught sideways a little bit, but fingers crossed, like Matt said, we need a little bit of a Christmas miracle."

Members of the Genesee Snopackers have been out all night and into the morning assisting search and rescue crews locate and rescue stranded motorists in the Alabama and Oakfield areas, Vice President Nate Fix reports.

Fix said he's been working with fellow Snopacker Tony Johnston since about 9 p.m.

They've deployed the Snopackers groomers to assist rescue convoys, which includes two MRAPs from Orleans County and Livingston County along with five Sheriff's patrol vehicles and the Oakfield Fire Department.

"We have successfully rescued over 25 people some would not have made any longer and needed immediate medical attention," Fix said."We covered from the Oakfield Fire Hall to a mile west of Macomber Road, leading the convoy back to Oakfield with rescued people. We then went Route 63 toward Batavia Townline Road, Maple to Ledge Road, and all the way to the Indian Falls Fire Hall where we took more survivors.

When he provided the report, about 30 minutes ago, the crew was back on Ledge Road and moving toward the Tonawanda Indian Reservation. They were on their way to rescue a family of five. 

Photos submitted by Nate Fix.

UPDATE: Johnston and Fix back at the Snopackers garage after 15 hours of search and rescue work.

 

As of 7 a.m., Ken Lauer says Route 33 is pretty much blocked by some tractor-trailers.  Route 77 seems OK "but you gotta be nuts to be driving," he says. "Too much blowing to estimate snowfall, but drifts are two to four feet.  Crosby on the corner is open.  I’m at the bakery if someone needs warmth and a hot beverage.  Looks like Santa Amazon is in need of Rudolph and some large tow trucks."

Email weather-related photos to howard@thebatavian.com or text to (585) 260-6970

Jason Smith's dogs in Batavia are a bit unsure about going outside.

Photo submitted by Leah Buckel. "This tree narrowly missed our house! Unfortunately, part of it did hit my husband's car."

We're starting our Day #2 coverage of Winter Storm Elliott in Genesee County.  This post will be anchored at the top of the home page until further notice.  For Friday's coverage, click here.

See also these stories we published Friday night:

• City and County closes Friday but essential services remain open
• Elliott continues visit throughout Genesee County: more than 2K customers with power outages
• County Highway crews heading to Route 77 in Alabama to try and rescue stranded drivers in whiteout conditions
• Motorists rescued, fed, kept warm during travel on Friday
• A community of emergency response assists those in need during storm

Throughout the day, a persistent, large band of lake-effect snow stretching from Lake Erie to Alabama and Oakfield has hovered in place. As the satellite photo above shows, it's been pretty stationary and so far shows no signs of abating. The band is 15 miles wide.

The National Weather Service predicts that blizzard conditions will continue throughout the Niagara Frontier overnight. 

Dispatchers continue to report multiple motorists stranded in the northwest quadrant in the county with some occupants reporting hypothermia.  There have been several motorists rescued already, most taken to various warming shelters, a couple to UMMC for treatment.  

There are about 2,000 National Grid customers without power, and for most, no ETA on power restoration. 

There is a travel ban in effect for Genesee County and for the Thruway.

This post will be continuously updated, except for a break for sleep, until either the storm ends or we start a new post. While it is being actively updated, it will be anchored at the top of the home page.

UPDATE 12:37 a.m.: There is a convoy of emergency responders on Route 77 heading toward Route 33 retrieving people, and then they will proceed on Route 33.

UPDATE 12:41 a.m.: An emergency responder reports being stuck on Route 63, and another responder advises they can't get to him and advises they go to the Alabama Station #1.  "We're stuck well before that."

UPDATE 1:09 a.m.: An MRAP from Orleans County is now assisting with rescues.

UPDATE 1:50 a.m.: Tim Hens says that it's slow going trying to clear roads.  Judge Road is impassible, also Lewiston Road. The crews are trying Townline Road now.  The whiteout conditions are making the work impossible.

UPDATE 2:35 a.m.: Taking a break, or trying, to get some sleep.

UPDATE 9:04 a.m.: A convoy of rescue teams just completed going through Route 77 at Judge and is heading north.  There is also a rescue convoy operating around Sumner Road in Darien.

UPDATE 9:07 a.m.: The "Dollar" in Family Dollar in Eastown Plaza blew off overnight. (Reader submitted photo). Submit photos to howard@thebatavian.com or (585) 260-6970.

Also, Bethany's UTV is en route to Alabama to assist with rescue efforts.

UPDATE 9:12 a.m.: A rescue convoy has reached a group of cars in Alabama and are checking for occupants. A dispatcher asks for car descriptions "so we can clear some of these calls" and is told, "Some of the cars are buried in four or five feet or snow. We'll do our best.  Most people are telling us are in the Alabama Hotel, patrons are telling us."

UPDATE 9:19 a.m.: A fire police commander in Oakfield reports he's about two minutes from the Hall, and another chief is "taking over command and relieving me."

UPDATE 9:20 a.m.: A crew commander reports that there are about 100 people at the Alabama Hotel, and they all report they're doing well.  The convoy will try to head east and make it back to the Oakfield Fire Hall.

UPDATE 9:26 a.m.: A crew is heading east on Lewiston. The State Police from Orleans County is coming to the area with tracked vehicles. They will check north and west. There is also a crew heading to Macomber and Knowesville.

UPDATE 9:30 a.m.: East Pembroke chief says he has enough four-wheel vehicles to send to Alabama but doesn't have the manpower available to operate them. He's checking to see if there is enough manpower to deploy them.  The Indian Falls chief reports that the State Police have four tracked ATVs at his hall, ready to be deployed.

UPDATE 9:34 a.m.: For more reader-submitted photos, click here.

UPDATE 9:37 a.m.: A Darien crew is heading to Alabama to assist.

UPDATE 10:40 a.m.: All of the people are out of their vehicles from the Niagara County line to Alabama Center, a responder reports.  There's also a semi-trailer blocking Route 5.  A firefighter is checking an unknown odor at a residence on Lewiston Road.

UPDATE 10:51 a.m.: The travel ban for Genesee County will be partially lifted at noon.  Click here for more information.

UPDATE 11:07 a.m.: A crew is heading out toward Townline Road after leaving the fire hall. That crew is going out of service for while once it reaches its hall.

See also: Genesee Snopackers assisting with search and rescue efforts during storm

UPDATE 11:12 a.m.: "We're trying to stop cars at Route 77 and Ledge north because they keep trying to get through, and there is no place to put them."

UPDATE 11:16 a.m.: That odor at a residence on Lewiston Road; they had an issue with their furnace. The furnace has been shutdown. "They are good with electric heat."

UPDATE 11:25 a.m.: Multiple times last night and tonight, fire chiefs have been informed that Mercy EMS ambulances were not available. A dispatcher just informed a chief in Indian Falls that Mercy is not responding to calls outside of Batavia. Darien's ambulance is fully staffed and standing by for calls.

UPDATE 11:27 a.m.: Byron's ambulance is dispatched to Le Roy for a medical call.

UPDATE 11:38 a.m.: An Elba chief reports Route 98 at Townline and Edgerton is closed and impassible with five vehicles "stretched across the roadway."  Also, a crew is going to be sent to Indian Falls to stop traffic from coming north.

UPDATE 11:43 a.m.: There are no operators with the vehicles on Route 98.  A rep from Torrey Farms believes the operators are at the school.

UPDATE 12:53 p.m.: The last vehicle on Judge Road has been unstuck, and the driver is being sent to Indian Falls.  Resources are getting redeployed to Batavia. Route 77 north of Route 5 "is turning into a parking lot in some ways."

UPDATE 1:04 p.m.: See also, County leaders counting blessings in midst of 'wicked storm'

UPDATE 1:12 p.m.: State of Emergency declared for the City of Batavia.

UPDATE 1:20 p.m.: Alabama Fire paged for a replacement crew to respond to Station #1.

UPDATE 1:31 p.m.: See also, Weather-related closures and cancellations

UPDATE 1:42 p.m.: A crew is heading to the TA to pick up gas for a man currently at the Indian Falls Fire Hall.

UPDATE 2:48 p.m.:  Supplies are being taken to Indian Falls for Alabama and Pembroke. 

UPDATE 3:19 p.m.: Bethany Center Road is now open.

UPDATE 5:02 p.m.: National Grid reports 757 customers without power, down from more than 1,700 earlier today.

UPDATE 5:28 p.m.: Alabama Fire had a call but couldn't get to it because "Route 63 is unpassable for us."  So Oakfield is trying to try and respond from their side of 63.

UPDATE 5:30 p.m.: Akron Road is also unpassable.

UPDATE 5:41 p.m.: See also, Winter Storm Elliott: update from Hochul

UPDATE 6:15 p.m.: Le Roy's UTV assignment to Oakfield is back in service.

UPDATE 6:24 p.m.: A crew has picked up "plenty of supplies" at City Fire and is heading back to that affected zone.  "Good. We'll have another mission when you get here," the assistant chief is told.

UPDATE 6:58 p.m.: Fire commanders are trying to keep as few emergency vehicles on the road as possible for call responses.  Route 77 is unpassiable. Mercy EMS has started responding to calls outside of Batavia but staging outside the snow-impacted area while firefighters respond to incidents.

UPDATE 7:19 p.m.: An emergency responder reports, "conditions are deteriorating out here again."

UPDATE 7:27 p.m.: An Alabama crew is on a medical call on Route 77 and needs assistance getting the patient out of the house.  It's been difficult to get additional help there.  An MRAP is responding to assist.

UPDATE 7:30 p.m.: Dispatchers are receiving calls that Route 77 at Route 5 is impassable because of all the tractor-trailers along the roadway. A Mercy medic in the area reports, there is one lane available for thru traffic, "but I wouldn't recommend it for future calls."

UPDATE 7:59 p.m.: A volunteer in Alabama has received a call from a Newstead firefighter stating that Erie County received a call from a woman with a child that has been trapped in a car at Tesnow and Wright roads since yesterday afternoon. Forest rangers in the area are going to offload their snowmobiles and head to that location, and bring the occupants back to the Indian Falls Fire Hall.

UPDATE 8:56 p.m.: There is a truck stuck on Clinton Street Road with two adults and a child.

UPDATE 10:04 p.m.  I'm not saying this is the last update to this post but it may very well be.  We're unsticking it from the top of the home page.  We will continue to provide coverage as news developes.

With a high degree of concern for people trapped in their cars in the area of Route 77 and Judge Road, County Highway Superintendent Tim Hens, along with three county highway personnel driving three heavy loaders/plow trucks, are leaving Batavia in an attempt to rescue them.

No other emergency personnel in fire trucks, rescue trucks, or patrol cars have been able to reach them.

"I've got three highway guys putting their lives at risk, my life at risk, to try and save them, but I would feel bad if we didn't try," Hens said.

Hens was just leaving the City of Batavia, driving behind the highway trucks and said visibility was already down to nearly zero. He passed a semi-truck stuck in the snow in front of Tops.  There was about a foot of snow in that location.

Deputies have reported drifts of snow as high as five feet surrounding the cars that are stuck in Alabama.

"We have a pretty high level of concern," Hens said. "Some people have been out there nine, 10 hours. I know there are people who are hypothermic at this point.  I'm not sure we will be able to reach them.  It's just such bad visibility. I'm not even sure we will be able to get there, to be honest."

There has been a heavy, large lake-effect snow band stretching from Lake Erie into Alabama and Oakfield all day.  The National Weather Service reports it is likely to be in place until at least midnight.

"It might be there until midnight tomorrow," Hens said. "This storm is going to revival '77 in its intensity.  It's maybe not as wide or as broad but for people under the snow band, it will be."

Photo: File photo of Tim Hens from 2018 at Genesee County Legislature meeting.

UPDATE: here's a four-second video from Tim Hens showing conditions on the road to Alabama.