Refugee, granny and nurse aide among US storm dead

The identities of the dozens of victims who lost their lives to a deadly US winter storm are emerging as the snow begins to melt.

Over 60 people died, most of the them in New York’s Erie County, home to the state’s second largest city, Buffalo.

A Congolese refugee, a nursing assistant and a grandmother are among the dead.

Some were found in their cars or on the frigid pavement, and even in the relative safety of their homes.

Sophia Clay spent Christmas Eve worried and anxious about her brother, William Clay, 56, who had gone missing.

“If he comes to your door please help him,” she wrote in a Facebook post that morning. “Please pray for his safety.”

Willie Payne, one of Mr Clay’s siblings to their mother, who had 12 children, told NPR it was a shock when he received a call from Sophia later that day. She told Mr Payne that their brother had been found face down in the snow, dead.

Mr Clay died on his birthday.

Abdul Sharifu, 26, left at midday on Christmas Eve to get shopping for his pregnant wife, family members told local media. He never returned.

Hours after he departed, he was found dead on a pavement.

Mr Sharifu, a refugee from Democratic Republic of the Congo, was in the middle of rebuilding his life in Buffalo, having fled his war-torn homeland.

Ali Sharifu, his cousin, told Buffalo News that Mr Sharifu “was so excited to become a father” and was working toward buying a home for his growing family.

Monique Alexander, 52, left home on Christmas Eve, but never made it back, her daughter Casey Maccarone told ABC News.

“She never said where she was going, just that she would be right back,” Ms Maccarone said.

Hours went by without Ms Maccarone hearing from her mother. She then posted a message to a Buffalo blizzard group on Facebook asking if anyone had seen her.

Later she received a phone call from a man who told her he had found her mother’s body buried beneath the snow.

Ms Maccarone said her mother’s death meant the losing the “rock of the family”.

Anndel Taylor, 22, died after being trapped in her car on the Friday before Christmas Eve.

Ms Taylor was a certified nursing assistant who had moved to Buffalo from Charlotte, North Carolina, to be with her elderly father.

She was driving home from work and was only minutes away from her destination before becoming stranded, relatives told US media.

Ms Taylor had been sending videos of the blizzard to family members from inside her car. But eventually, the communication stopped.

Her body was found the next day.

Her mother, Brown Steele, told reporters: “I want to get to the bottom of why the city was unable to help.”

Timothy Murphy, 27, was found by his cousin on Christmas Day, a family member told the New York Times.

The cousin, Steven, chose to visit the house in Lockport, Niagara County, because Mr Murphy wasn’t answering phone calls. Neither was Steven’s mother, who also lives at the address.

He called 911 after finding Timothy “cold” and unresponsive and his mother unconscious.

Mr Murphy was killed when carbon monoxide accumulated in the house after his external furnace was blocked by snow, officials say.

Carolyn Eubanks, 63, had a heart condition and depended on an oxygen machine, her family told Buffalo News.

Her son and his stepbrother travelled to her house to try to rescue her, but a journey that usually takes 10 minutes by car instead took hours due to road closures and stuck vehicles.

As her son, Antwaine Parker, tried to walk her to his car, she collapsed in the snow. Parker banged on a neighbour’s door for help.

The strangers rushed out to help Eubanks inside, but she quickly succumbed.

Her body then lay in the house for 24 hours before she was taken to a hospital.

The couple “allowed my mother to rest in peace on their living room floor”, Mr Parker said.

Stanisława Jóźwiak, 73, was an immigrant from Poland who died after her car slid off the road while she was driving to a market across town, her daughter told the Washington Post.

Her body was found inside her car on Christmas Day.

Her daughter, Edie Syta, told the Post that it’s possible her mother did not understand the severity of the storm warnings because she was not fluent in English.

“So many families are going to be broken,” she tearfully told the newspaper. “And they’re never going to look at Christmas the same.”