In Buffalo, it was ‘a very, very bad night in our community.’

Many people in Buffalo and across Western New York awoke on Saturday morning unable to leave their homes.

High winds and a barreling storm that had continued overnight drove mounds of snow more than 6 feet high against the fronts of homes and businesses, encasing front doors and porches and pinning vehicles parked in roads and driveways. Few people ventured outside, and those who did faced bitterly cold temperatures that numbed faces, froze fingers, and left clothing and exposed extremities saturated and frozen.

“This was a very, very bad night in our community,” Mark Poloncarz, the Erie County executive, said on Saturday morning. “This may turn out to be the worst storm in our community’s history, surpassing the famed Blizzard of ’77 for its ferocity.”

He said the wind and snow were hampering emergency response efforts and suggested that hundreds of residents could still be trapped in cars, including people who tried to drive out of the region late at night.

“Our No. 1 priority is coordinating efforts to get to these people,” he said, although he added that in many of the worst-affected areas, no emergency service was available.

He urged residents not to call 911 for nonemergency situations so that the service could help those who need it most urgently. “It may stink that your internet is down, but that is not a reason to call 911,” he said with exasperation.

Conditions were not expected to improve throughout the day. The National Weather Service predicted winds gusting as high as 65 miles per hour and wind chills as cold as 15 to 25 below zero.