Winter Safety and Preparedness

Buffalo Mom, Karen Rossi, Writes Goodbye Notes While Trapped Inside Snow-Buried Car

Pictured in this image are Karen Rossi and her daughter, Madelyn, after Karen was rescued from her 13-hour ordeal.
(John Hickey/Buffalo News)

Thirteen hours of torture elapsed for Karen Rossi, a Buffalo, New York, mother who got trapped inside her car in a snowbank, according to the Buffalo News, during last week's lake-effect snow event that dumped as much as seven feet of snow on the area.

"It felt like I was underground, buried in a casket," she told the Buffalo News.

Rossi, a pharmacy technician at a Lancaster hospital, departed for home at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning after working an extra shift, according to People.com. She drove into an area that was getting hammered by the massive snowfall. Rates of five inches an hour were observed at times.

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She wasn't far from home when she got stuck in Lancaster, but when a plow came by and pushed even more snow on top of her car, Rossi knew she was in life-threatening trouble. She told the Buffalo News she couldn't tell night from day and was armed with nothing useful inside the car after her phone died, because her daughter had recently cleaned the vehicle and removed all emergency items.

Inside that buried blue Chevrolet Cobalt, Rossi began to believe she would die, so she started to pen goodbye letters to her two daughters that she thought would be found with her body, according to the Albany Times Union.

While Rossi waited in her car for hours, hoping help would arrive, she communicated with her 17-year-old daughter, Madelyn, who reminded her to keep the tailpipe clear of snow to prevent carbon monoxide from filling the running car, the Times Union also said.

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Rossi spent hours trying to dig out of the frigid snow, determined to see her family one more time. She waved a red snow brush, the Buffalo News reported, trying to attract the attention of anyone who could help.

Eventually, David Edwards, a railroad employee in a big black truck, spotted Rossi and began digging her out with a shovel. Disoriented but alive, Rossi was grateful for Edwards' heroic response that saved her life, she told the Buffalo News.

With her neighborhood's roads blocked by feet of snow, Edwards volunteered to shelter Rossi for the night, offering her food and a warm change of clothes, the report added.

"I’ll never think about things the same," she told the Buffalo News. "I made so many promises to myself in the car. I’ll never sweat the small stuff again."

And as for those farewell letters, "My kids don’t even want to see them," Rossi told the New York Post.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Buffalo's Massive Lake-Effect Snow Event