ran out of fuel. Since their design necessitated the use of water instead of antifreeze as a coolant, the water in the pumper froze and ruined them. The fire was eventually extinguished, but not before six or seven houses were destroyed and 50 people left homeless. Virginia Street and Whitney Place were closed for more than two weeks following the fire due to vehicles stuck in the ice. Firemen used snowmobiles to rescue trapped people, and to transport nurses and doctors to the hospitals; they also used four-wheel drive vehicles to deliver medicine. On Friday, volunteers on four-wheel drive vehicles and snowmobiles delivered food (a few thousand dollars worth every 45 minutes) for the Salvation Army from their Buffalo headquarters. The Red Cross opened eight shelters in Erie County, New York, on Friday, and snowmobile clubs provided volunteers to deliver food, blood and medicine. Snowmobiles were also used to rescue people from the Skyway, as well as from another expressway. Duration and cleanup Saturday, January 29 By midnight Friday, an estimated 2,000 cars were stranded on Main Street and about 8,000 on other streets in the City of Buffalo. By Saturday morning, visibility improved and the City sent their plows back out. The many abandoned cars made their job more difficult. By 6:00 am, Buffalo's Commissioner of Street Sanitation had 30 private tow trucks removing vehicles; later in the day, the number would rise to 50. Saturday afternoon, dump trucks and payloaders dumped snow into the Niagara River. On Saturday, blizzard conditions prevailed and the Buffalo Courier-Express did not publish for the first time in its 143-year history, and The Buffalo Evening News published only 10,000 copies. On Friday, January 28, New York State Governor Hugh L. Carey requested that portions of New York State be declared a major disaster area; on Saturday, President Jimmy Carter declared an "emergency" for all of New York and Pennsylvania that resulted in a declaration of emergency specifically for the western New York counties of Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, and Niagara. At 11:10 am, during a short break in the storm, a National Guard C-130 was able to land at the Buffalo Airport. A record low for the date, was set, breaking the old record set in 1885, and a peak wind gust of was recorded. During midafternoon, the lull in the storm ended and the winds once again blew strong, causing new drifting. The