A North Carolina woman is among the victims who died during the historic blizzard that impacted the Buffalo area of New York over the holiday weekend.
Anndel Taylor, 22, of Charlotte, was traveling home from work in Buffalo when her car became stuck in the snow, her family told ABC affiliate WSOC-TV.
Taylor’s family believes she was trapped inside her car for 18 hours before she died, per the report. Her death comes shortly before her 23rd birthday.
“[There’s been] a lot of crying,” Shawnequa Brown, Taylor’s sister, told the outlet.
Taylor is one of at least 27 people in Buffalo that died as a result of the storm. At least 50 people have died nationwide.
On Monday, New York’s Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said some people died as emergency responders experienced storm-related delays while trying to reach those who were stranded amid frigid temperatures.
Taylor’s family believes she is one of those victims, WSOC reported. They said she had called 911 when her car got stuck in the snow, but that help never came.
“I feel like everybody that tried to get to her got stuck,” Tomeshia Brown, Taylor’s sister, told the outlet. “Fire department, police, everybody got stuck.”
Taylor told her family in a group chat that the snow was accumulating quickly and shared video footage of snow covering her car windows, according to the WSOC report.
“She was telling my sister that she was scared,” Brown said.
Wanda Brown Steele, Taylor’s mother, told the outlet that her daughter intended to walk home after sleeping in her car during the storm.
She believes Taylor died of carbon monoxide poisoning. “The car was running, and the snow was still coming, so it blocked the pipes, the exhaust pipe,” Steele said, per the report.
“After the car cut off,” she added, “that’s when she iced up.”
More than $15,00 has been raised via GoFundMe for Taylor’s family in the wake of the 22-year-old’s sudden death.
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