Five reported victims in New Jersey of the massive blizzard that pummeled the eastern part of the country last week were among at least 45 people who died in the epic storm nationwide. They hit the young and the old, leaving families reeling from tragedies that in some cases were inexplicable. Watch video
Richard Rossiter's car got stuck in a snowdrift in South Jersey. Mary Wall was shoveling snow outside her home in Mahwah.
Frances McQuaige for some reason her family still cannot understand drove all the way from Long Island to die a lonely death at a snowbound Burger King in Hackensack. And Sashalynn Rosa and her infant son were trying to keep warm in the family's 15-year-old car while the father of her children tried to dig it out of the snow in Passaic.
The five reported victims in New Jersey of the massive blizzard that pummeled the eastern part of the country last week were among at least 45 people who died in the epic storm, succumbing to accidents, heart attacks, carbon monoxide poisoning and exposure. That toll, from South Carolina and up into New York, includes people struck by snowplows, killed while sledding, succumbing to heart attacks shoveling snow, and skidding off icy roads.
The car where a 23-year-old mother and her infant son died of carbon monoxide poisoning while idling in a snowbank was turned into a makeshift memorial by well-wishers on Tuesday (Justin Zaremba | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) The New Jersey deaths hit the young and the old, leaving families reeling from tragedies that in some cases were inexplicable.
In Passaic, Felix Bonilla is still trying to come to terms with the death of his grandson and the boy's mother in a car that filled with deadly carbon monoxide as it idled while stuck in the snow. His 3-year-old granddaughter, Saniyah Bonilla, was overcome as well, and remains in critical condition at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson.
"No words can express," he said.
According to police, the father of the children, Felix Bonilla Jr., went to dig out their white 2000 four-door Mazda sedan parked on Sherman Avenue--two blocks up from their house on Brinkerhoff Place, a narrow street of apartments where there is not much room for cars--at around 8 p.m. on Saturday night, as the storm was winding down. He started up the engine to keep the family warm, but police said the exhaust pipe was buried in the snow.
After shoveling for about 20 minutes, Bonilla he noticed that Rosa and the kids appeared to have fallen asleep. When he was unable to wake them up, he called police.
When authorities arrived at the scene, they found neighbors using cardiopulmonary resuscitation in an attempt to revive them. All three victims were transferred to St. Mary's Hospital in Passaic, where Rosa and Messiah were pronounced dead.
The mother and young boy both died from carbon monoxide poisoning, Detective Andrew White said. The girl was later transferred to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center, where she was listed in critical condition on Tuesday.
The children's grandfather, still struggling for words, said he was devastated.
"We're all just praying for her," Bonilla said.
A GoFundMe fundraiser started on Sunday has already raised nearly $7,000 for the burial of Rosa and Messiah. Meanwhile the car, still encased in snow and ice, had become a memorial Tuesday, with candles, flowers and balloons in memory of the family. A small white teddy bear with a red heart stood as sentinel.
In Mahwah, Mary Wall, 64, was remembered as a pleasant but private woman, said Al D'Angelo, a neighbor on Sunnyside Road. "Always did her own yard work. In the fall it was the leaves, in the winter it was the snow," he said.
It was the snow that killed her. Several children found her body on Monday, after she apparently collapsed and died while shoveling snow two days earlier, according to police. She was discovered still holding a shovel in her hands. A Bergen County spokesman attributed her death to coronary artery disease, with exposure to low temperatures as a contributing condition.
Family members said Wall, originally from Milford, Conn., had lived in Mahwah for many years, at first with her husband Robert, then alone after they divorced.
D'Angelo said Wall appeared to be in good health, and "did not seem to be frail or in ill health." He did not know what she did for a living, but had assumed she was retired.
Mahwah Mayor Bill Laforet, who knew her as customer at the service station he operated, said people were shocked by Wall's death.
"It's tragic. You never expect it to happen in your community," he said. "It's a close-knit community up on Sunnyside. She was a lovely woman."
In Hackensack, Frances McQuaige, 78, died during the storm while hunkered down in the parking lot of a local Burger King. Police said she drove to New Jersey from Long Island, before pulling into the fast food restaurant lot on Saturday, where she told an employee she was afraid of driving in the snow. Her lifeless body was found in her gold-colored Cadillac on Monday.
"She was just a wonderful lady," said Brian McQuaige of the Bronx, N.Y., who identified himself as her nephew.
She shared a home with her grown daughter, Stephanie, on a quiet street in Medford, Long Island. A sister-in-law, Jean McQuaig, of Brooklyn, said while retired, McQuaige had worked for many years as a social worker or case worker. She said not know why she would have been in New Jersey, a two-hour drive from her daughter's home on the eve of a major blizzard.
"It's very possible she was disoriented and got lost," she said.
Her death was also attributed to coronary artery disease, with exposure to low temperatures as a contributing condition, said the spokesman for Bergen County.
Workers at Burger King declined to be interviewed, but in a statement from corporate headquarters, officials expressed sorrow.
"We are heartbroken at the tragedy that occurred near the franchisee owned and operated restaurant in Hackensack. Our deepest sympathies go out to the family of Mrs. McQuaige," said the company.
The fifth New Jersey victim was Richard "Tim" Rossiter, 62, who died in East Greenwich in Gloucester County after his car got stuck in a snowdrift up the street from his North Wolfert Station Road home a little after 8 p.m. Saturday, according to police.
Officials said he and his wife began walking home when he suffered a heart attack. County EMS and East Greenwich fire and police responded and performed CPR, but he was pronounced dead at Inspira Medical Center later that evening.
An adjunct at Rowan University, Rossiter was a retired computer programmer for Boeing.
Clifton R. Lacy, director of the Institute for Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security at Rutgers University and the state's former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, said deaths in natural disasters that arrive with some warning, like storms that travel up the coast, can be particularly tragic because there is an opportunity for people to prepare in advance.
The institute, which focuses on preparations for natural disasters as well as accidental and intentional threats, said FEMA, the CDC and the Red Cross all offer checklists of what people should do to prepare their homes, their cars and themselves for severe weather and other disasters.
"The majority of problems that occur from these kinds of events happen because of exposure to the elements," he said.
At the same time, Lacy--a cardiologist--said heavy exertion in cold weather is a recipe for heart trouble. "When you are shoveling heavy snow, you are putting an extreme workload on the body. What is especially bad is that exposure of the face and body to the cold air causes a reflex in the body to constrict arteries," he noted. "So while your need for increased blood supply goes up when you shovel, the cold decreases blood supply to the heart."
Lacy added that vulnerable people do not need a lot of exposure to freezing temperatures for hypothermia to result.
"There are a variety of things that lead to these tragedies, but accidents occur," remarked state climatologist David Robinson at Rutgers University, who said any death is tragic, but the number of fatalities in New Jersey caused by the blizzard was relatively low.
"Accidents occur and there is often a lack of knowledge--like the people in the car with their tailpipe covered," he said. "You hate to see any deaths, but if you go outside in something like this, you are definitely in a more vulnerable position."
This story was reported and written by Anthony G. Attrino, Noah Cohen, Rebecca Forand, Ted Sherman and Justin Zaremba for NJ.com