How a 70,000-person Facebook group saved lives – and hope – during Buffalo's blizzard

She quickly exhausted her personal contacts, the National Guard and the city's police stations to try to secure help for Grossi, who was huddled inside a gas station a few blocks from his truck on Mortimer Street. He was running low on gas for warmth and hadn't eaten in two days; his phone battery had crept down to 14% and he lived 18 miles away in Hamburg with a wife and two children, Koons said.

Koons reached Grossi on the phone and could hear the fear in his voice. "I don't think I'm going to make it another night," the brother told his sister Sunday.

Across Western New York, the desperation Grossi expressed was taking over. The storm that would come to rival the Blizzard of '77 in intensity showed no signs of letting up. Even emergency responders said they were unable to reach people in need.

But into that breach stepped an unlikely hero: The Buffalo Blizzard 2022 Facebook group, which was committed to moving heaven and earth to help anyone who needed it and succeeded often in its mission.

The social media forum helped connect a woman in labor with two doulas for a homebirth and a snowmobiler to rescue a woman at Clinton and Babcock Friday night. Buffalo Blizzard has become such a resource that it was listed on a local government website during the storm. 

The Facebook group was started in 2014 by Northtowns native Erin Aquilina as a communication headquarters during Western New York's recovery from the wall of snow storm, accumulating about 7,000 members. It was reincarnated during the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a name change to suit the disaster but carrying along existing members.

Its growth skyrocketed from about 24,000 members to 70,000 over the last seven days, with Aquilina's four teammates – Kristen Burr, Erika Barba, Jackie Martin and Lynn Greene – carefully monitoring the group to keep it close to its purpose: connecting those in need with help in real time. The quartet of women worked closely with Merry Williams-Diers, who maintains the WNY Missing & Unidentified Persons Network Facebook page and doubles as an admin with the Buffalo Blizzard group.

Aquilina said the group's tenor during this blizzard was far different than November 2014. "During the height of the storm it was very dark," she said of the Christmas blizzard. "People were desperately seeking lifesaving help." 

But the City of Good Neighbors lived up to its motto. "Honestly there were so many posts of people in different areas just willing to help complete strangers," Burr said. "That’s what I noticed the most."

Burr contrasted the highs and the lows, which often came back to back.

"We are seeing personal tragedy and the very best of humanity playing out all at the same time in our community," she said. Burr added that she believes a thorough plan is needed for the region to handle storms of this magnitude.

The group leaders tried not to ride the roller coaster from the sorrow of loss to the joy of connection and back. "I think all of the admins of the group kind of just shut down the emotion and kept our focus," Aquilina said.

Several Facebook users were eager to offer or plead for help, but it was not quite as easy for Koons, the 52-year-old from Lancaster. Urged by a girlfriend to try alerting the group about her brother's plight, she was initially hesitant. She had never heard of it, and as an infrequent social media user, the thought of posting vulnerable information to 67,000 people made her feel uncomfortable. She cobbled together a post describing Grossi's desperation, adding that she would be "willing to pay anything" for him to be recovered. Koons' girlfriend suggested she remove the post, concerned about potential scammers. Koons tried again.

Within 20 minutes, Koons received a Facebook message, asking if her brother was still in need. The person inquiring said he lived a block from where Grossi was stranded. The stranger scooped up Grossi, drove him through the wind and snow on surface roads from the East Side to Camp Road in Hamburg. He was a comforting presence, too, as Grossi shared his relief with Koons as he was being driven home.

"This guy is an angel," Grossi told Koons. "He's wonderful. I feel safe. He's going to take me home."

The stranger was identified only as "Dijon." He repeatedly turned down money and politely declined a hot dinner in order to continue helping others. Attempts to track him down to thank him have been futile, Koons said.

Koons, effusive in her gratitude for the stranger, was still in disbelief Thursday. "Who does that? Jefferson and Broadway to Hamburg – with a smile on his face? He's nuts."

Facilitating help in life-threatening situations like Grossi's meant that the administrators had to filter out the social media noise that can clutter an active group. Seeking to avoid spammers and scammers, the administrators chose to designate the group as "private," which meant prospective participants were quickly vetted before being admitted.

Each post by community members entered a queue, requiring approval from any of the six administrators, who aimed to organize needs by separate threads by both community and topics like stranded motorists, missing people, those seeking plows or contractors, snowstorm resources, those in need of food and more.

Constant oversight was crucial. Posts of desperation could not linger in a queue for long. Aquilina said their only break during the storm was from 1 to 4 a.m. daily – a time for rest that was more like a stressed nap. They had approved more than 5,000 storm-related posts as of Thursday afternoon. Their efforts to rapidly connect strangers in crisis were life-changing. Just ask Koons.

When her family gathered to celebrate Christmas late last week, Koons knew Dijon, the helpful stranger on Jefferson, would be the focus of their prayers. "When we say grace on Friday, he will be the first name we mention," she said.

But Grossi would likely have never connected with Dijon if it were not for the Buffalo Blizzard group.

"I think it brought the community together," Koons said.