About 25 people spent the holiday weekend holed up inside a Target store after being stranded in blizzard conditions near Buffalo.
As the storm worsened on Friday, stranded motorists in whiteout conditions found their way to the Target Plaza on Walden Avenue in Cheektowaga, a suburb of Buffalo. Employees stranded at the store opened their iced-over doors and welcomed them with Starbucks hot cocoa. They werent dug out until Sunday.
A video shared by Facebook user Jessica Lee shows air mattresses set up between racks of clothes.
People camped out inside the store as snow drifts piled high against the stores glass doors, which were completely iced over. Kids played Uno and checked out books to keep busy, and on Saturday, everyone was able to watch the Buffalo Bills game on TV.
“I have never felt so scared in my life but we are safe and warm,” Lee wrote alongside the video and photos of the experience. “I cannot say enough to the target employees who opened their doors to us and have provided everything we have needed, you guys are literally life savers.”
The National Weather Service in Buffalo said that through Christmas Day on Sunday the city had already seen 92.7 inches of snow, just a few inches shy of the average 95.4 inches Buffalo gets during an entire winter season.
