This weekends snow storm brought countless delayed flights, icy roads, millions of power outages, and unfortunately lives lost. Hit the jump to read more.
The freak Halloween weekend snowstorm is being blamed for the death of a sickly Bronx great granny who died when her home lost power — and her oxygen machine shut down.
Sixteen people were also hurt — and one died — in a multi-car pile-up on the icy Cross Bronx Expressway early Sunday morning.
Kheowla Ramprasad, 77, died around 8:45 p.m. Saturday at her Heath Ave. home, cops and relatives said.
The Guyanese matriarch suffered from a heart condition and diabetes and had gone on oxygen support two weeks ago, family said. It was unclear if there was a backup battery for her machine.
“She was a very, very good person. It’s sad that this is the way she passed away,†said daughter Shala Mahmood, 50.
“She was sick but she was doing okay. Once she couldn’t breathe, that generated all the other problems.”
Mahmood said power was off and on in the house all day Saturday and went off completely at 5 p.m. About ten minutes later, Ramprasad began struggling to breathe.
Mahmood said she called paramedics who came and worked on Ramprasad in the dark for two hours, but they were unable to save her.
The family — who huddled under extra blankets and kept warm by boiling water and standing near the stove — was still without power Sunday morning.
“We slept in the freezing cold. Our phones are dead. We have to call family members. Our cell phone batteries are dying,” said Mahmood.
“I’m very upset right now,” she said. “I feel frustrated. Con Edison could’ve been more sympathetic. I’ve called once, twice, three times. I’m getting the same answer.”
Mahmood’s brother Anoop Kalicharan, 57, said they were trying to make arrangements to host mourners.
“People will come here in the evening and we provide food and comfort. It will be extremely difficult for us to do it in the dark. We have no heat.â€
Storm conditions also contributed to a fatal accident on the slick, icy Cross Bronx Expressway at about 5:45 Sunday.
“It was like tops,” a police source said of the spinning cars. “There were icy conditions on the road.”
A 20-year-old woman was killed and a 19-year-old man critically injured. First, their Chevy Venture minivan was part of a chain-reaction pile-up caused by drivers hitting the brakes on icy roads, cops said.
Then the victims got out of the vehicle to check damage and were hit from behind by another car. Both fell 75 feet from the elevated highway into a sand pit at a construction site below, cops and witnesses said.
“There were cars spun out everywhere up there,†said Joe Torres, 34, who works for nearby Anthony’s Collision on Chesbrough Ave.
Torres said he and his work partner were sitting in their truck waiting for tow calls when he heard someone scream from inside a fenced-off construction site nearby.
“At first I thought we were going crazy,” Torres said, “Then I hear her yelling, screaming at the top of her lungs.”
Torres said he and cops from the Emergency Services Unit rushed to the site.
“Me and like six cops ran through that hole in the fence over there and then they broke this gate down,” he said.
The two women were in critical condition Sunday morning at Jacobi Hospital.
City parks reopened Sunday morning after being closed overnight because of danger from falling tree limbs.
Parks officials said they received 1,000 calls to 311 overnight about downed trees and branches.
Power was out at 8015 homes in the city as of Sunday morning, with another 66,218 homes dark in Westchester, according to ConEd.
