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Young Nurse Dies After Being Trapped in Her Car for 18 Hours During Blizzard Shortly Before Her 23rd Birthday
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Young Nurse Dies After Being Trapped in Her Car for 18 Hours During Blizzard Shortly Before Her 23rd Birthday

“So many lives probably could have been saved if they put the travel ban in the night before,” Anndel Taylor's stepmother said.

Cover Image Source: GoFundMe

A North Carolina woman who was just shy of her 23rd birthday died during the historic blizzard that impacted the Buffalo area of New York over the holiday weekend. 22-year-old Anndel Taylor was one of more than 30 people who died in the storm. She was traveling home from work in Buffalo when her car got stuck in the snow. She ended up being trapped inside for 18 hours before she died, according to her family. Shawnequa Brown, Taylor's sister told ABC affiliate WSOC-TV. "[There's been] a lot of crying," after the 22-year-old's unexpected death. 

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“I don’t know if any of us really knew how serious it was, we didn’t see the news, we didn’t really know what was going on in Buffalo,” she said. Brown and other family members kept in touch with Taylor through the group chat where she informed them that she was stuck in blinding snow that was piling up fast. It seems she also shared a video of the car windows seemingly covered by snow.

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“She was telling my sister that she was scared,” Brown said. The family claimed that Taylor had called 911 when her car got stuck in the snow, but that help never came as first responders couldn’t reach her. She then planned to sleep out the storm and later walk home. She was later found dead in her car. There's been “a lot of crying, (she) still got presents under the tree,” Shawnequa Brown said.

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The cause of death is yet to be determined. While some believe she died from hypothermia her mother thinks her daughter died of carbon monoxide poisoning.“The car was running, and the snow was still coming, so it blocked the pipes, the exhaust pipe,” Wanda Brown Steele said. “Then after the car cut off, that’s when she iced up.” The family has set up a GoFundMe as they are " truly in need of emotional and financial help to complete the task at hand and with heavy hearts we are reaching out to all of you to assist us."

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The stepmother of Taylor who was a Buffalo nurse told The New York Post that she was just minutes away from home when she became stuck. She believes Taylor could have been saved along with many others. “They said they were prepared for this storm but they were not prepared for this storm,” Smith said. “So many lives probably could have been saved if they put the travel ban in the night before,” she added.  

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“We were calling, her mother was calling, her sisters I’m sure were calling, my son was calling. They had multiple calls from everyone who knew, calling the police and 911,” she continued. “They had a number up for the National Guard – that number wasn’t working. We were calling all of the fire stations in the area — everything in the area where she was so maybe somebody would go out and try to help her. Nothing. Nothing. Everybody saying they’re gonna do, they’re gonna do it, they’re gonna check, oh we’ll get around to it, we’ll get around to it, we’ll get around to it — They never got around to it” Smith said.

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References:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/tragedy-in-buffalo-ny-blizzard-2022

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/charlotte-woman-dies-after-getting-stuck-new-york-snowstorm/N5HF2CR76RA4HPABI53KRWMYOY/

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https://nypost.com/2022/12/27/family-of-dead-buffalo-winter-storm-victim-anndel-taylor-blasts-city-officials/

Cover Image Source: GoFundMe