We are located about 70 miles south of Buffalo and about 20 miles from the lake Erie shore. We got virtually no problems from the storm. Just some rain and light winds. There are some power outages, but very few. Some schools are closed and a few trees are down. We're protected from a lot of weather related stuff, with the exception of lake effect snow, because of the ridges surrounding us, and because all of the wind from this storm came from the north/northeast. Lake effect stuff gets us because the winds come directly across the lake from the north and northwest winds that prevail normally.

I guess Buffalo got it worse than we did here, as well as further east from us, because they're either closer to the lakes, or in the path the winds took.

My heart goes out to those who have been severely hurt from the storm, and I hope the loss of life remains relatively small. Thanks go out to all the first responders, fire and police agencies who I'm sure did heroic work getting people out of flooded and damaged areas.

We were lucky here. A lot of people weren't. I hope all our sisters and brothers in the most affected areas came through this undamaged and safely.

Thanks to those who called or skyped to ask if we were okay here.

Catherine Linda Michel