Buffalo, NY - Mayor Byron W. Brown announced on December 31, 2022, the New York University’s Robert F.
Wagner Graduate School of Public Service (NYU Wagner) will be studying the December 2022 Buffalo blizzard
and delivering an after-action report on the actions throughout the region to prepare for, respond to, and
recover from the storm.
“This storm was one of the strongest winter weather systems to ever hit a densely populated metropolis. With
climate change and increasingly strong weather systems,” Mayor Brown said, “We know this is not the last. I am
pleased to welcome NYU Wagner’s partnership with the City of Buffalo to analyze this winter weather event.”
NYU Wagner is one of the premiere higher education institutions for public policy in the nation. This combination
of dedication to public policy and being outside the region will bring a unique and necessary level of objectivity
to the review and report.
Dean Sherry Glied said, “The Wagner School and its Rudin Center for Transportation are pleased to partner with
the City of Buffalo to learn from the experience of the recent blizzard, so that Buffalo, and other cold weather
cities, can respond efficiently to the effects of increasingly intensive storm weather events on infrastructure and
essential services.”
The administration of Mayor Byron Brown is already conducting internal reviews of the city’s response, as well
as working with the team at NYU Wagner. The after-action report will include examinations of, but not limited
to, the Department of Public Works, Buffalo Police Department and law enforcement partners, Buffalo Fire
Department, Buffalo Sewer Authority and other governmental entities, as well as local utility companies.
Once the NYU Wagner analysis is completed - currently slated for the first quarter of 2023 - this report will also
demonstrate for other cold weather cities across the nation best practices for handling such storm systems.
The City of Buffalo is resolved to learn from this storm and offer recommendations for improvements in how we
respond to future winter snow storms. Further information will be released in the coming months and the final
report will be publicly available. If you have any other questions, please contact City of Buffalo Communications
Director Mike DeGeorge at (716) 341.9522.