In Buffalo, New York, the average snowfall for an entire week is 93.6 inches (about 8 feet). In one night they received five and a half feet in one night and reports of possibly more in the next couple days.

People were barricaded into homes, cars, work places, and local places from the onslaught of snow. This lead to a lot of other things happening while the government was working to try and dig out the city.

A woman gave birth at a local fire station. Because of the blockage in the roads and freeways, they could not make it to the hospital. They were later transported by ambulance when the roads were cleared enough to drive on.  Some people were barricaded for nearly 30 hours, before the snow could be cleared enough. In homes and business people melted snow for water, shared food, and other resources to last the time before they could find their own means of sustenance. (Globalnews.ca)

According to weather.com this snowstorm is because of the lake effect that they received so much snow so quickly, but soon after, a rapid increase in temperature caused snow to melt in the same time it took for it to get there.

After all the snow, people thought that their homes and businesses would flood but the runoff and a few home floods is all that was reported. But for a couple days, the national weather service did put out reports of possible major flooding in buffalo and surrounding areas. Now the amount of snow has tapered out, and in the coming days random snow showers are predicted, and fairly good weather all around the region.(national weather forcast)
The temperature the day of the major snowstorm hit freezing and below across the nation. We all felt the chill as buffalo got buried in the flurries.