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28th Dec 2022

22 year old woman dies after being trapped in her car during a blizzard

Ellen Fitzpatrick

So tragic.

A woman in the USA has died after a historic blizzard hit New York and left her trapped in her car.

22 year old Anndel Taylor was travelling home from work in Buffalo in upstate New York when her car got stuck in the snow, according to WSOC-TV.

Originally from North Carolina, her family believe she was trapped in her car for 18 hours before she died. Anndel was only days away from her 23rd birthday.

“[There’s been] a lot of crying,” Shawnequa Brown, Anndel’s sister, told the outlet.

At least 27 people in the city have now died due to the storm, with 50 people across the US being killed by it.

New York’s Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said on Monday that emergency responders experienced storm-related delays as they attempted to reach those stranded due to the freezing temperatures, which has resulted in these fatalities.

Anndel’s family believe she called 911 when her car became stuck but help never arrived.

“I feel like everybody that tried to get to her got stuck,” Tomeshia Brown, Anndel’s sister, told the outlet. “Fire department, police, everybody got stuck.”

Anndel text into her family group chat that the snow was coming down heavy and shared videos of her surroundings, with Tomeshia continuing: “She was telling my sister that she was scared.”

Anndel’s mum Wanda Brown Steele said that she believes her daughter died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning as she was forced to sleep in her car.

She said: “The car was running, and the snow was still coming, so it blocked the pipes, the exhaust pipe.

“After the car cut off, that’s when she iced up.”

Nearly $30,000 has now been raised via GoFundMe for her family in the wake of her death.