At least three deaths in Buffalo are being blamed on a powerful autumn snow storm that walloped the region and blanketed parts of southern Ontario Thursday night and Friday.

The Erie County Health Department said two people were killed in weather-related traffic accidents, while a third person died after being hit by a falling tree limb while shoveling snow.

The nearby town of Fort Erie, Ont. has called a state of emergency, as residents find themselves without power and roads blocked by fallen trees. A leisure complex is open overnight to provide people with cots and warm meals.

"In many places the snow is almost knee-deep, and power lines are down in front of several homes," CTV's John Musselman reported from the scene.

As much as 30 centimetres of snow fell on some regions of southwestern Ontario, and almost 60 centimetres covered sections of western New York and Buffalo, making it that city's worst storm in 137 years.

Video footage of Buffalo's airport showed the nose of a massive jetliner tipped into the air, as heavy snow weighed down the aircraft's tail.

Many of Buffalo's residents, used to heavy snow, said they would deal with the freak storm as best as they could.

"What are you going to do?" asked Ken Humphrey as he struggled to shovel snow from his driveway. "You have to accept what you get."

In Fort Erie and Welland, where the storm was at its fiercest on the Canadian side, residents were bracing for more lake-effect snow on Friday as weather analysts predicted the region could receive another 15 centimetres.

Environment Canada described the wintry blast as "significant snowfalls of historic proportions.''

The heavy snowfall and winds of up to 90 kilometres an hour caused tree branches to snap onto power lines, leading to power outages from Port Colborne to Fort Erie, Ont.

Friday's snowfall forced the closure of the Peace Bridge border crossing connecting Fort Erie and Buffalo. States of emergency were called in Port Colborne, Fort Erie and Buffalo.

All schools in Fort Erie and Port Colborne were also closed as a result.

Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson said the early October storm is historic.

"I've been looking into the records of Fort Erie ... this amount of snow, this early in the season, I couldn't find anything even approaching it, as far back as 1870," he told CTV.

Parts of the Queen Elizabeth Way -- a major conduit for commuters in the region -- were shut down due to zero visibility. Ontario provincial police were asking motorists to avoid the area until further notice.

Lake Huron snow squalls also lashed the Bruce Peninsula, Parry Sound and other parts of cottage country, and another 10 centimetres were possible Friday morning.

Warnings were in place for Cobourg and Port Hope and the areas south of Rice Lake, and five centimetres were expected to fall in Dryden, Kenora, Fort Francis and Red Lake in northwestern Ontario.

Buffalo digs out

The storm also blasted Buffalo and western New York State. Close to 60 centimetres of snow fell on the region, knocking down trees and power lines and leaving 220,000 residents without electricity by midnight Thursday, according to the latest numbers.

In Buffalo schools were closed and flights were cancelled or delayed in what was a possible second straight record-setting day.

On Thursday, 53.5 centimetres of wet, heavy snow blanketed the area -- setting a new record for the "snowiest" October day in the 137 years the National Weather Service has been in operation.

The previous record was set on Oct. 31, 1917, when 38 centimetres of snow fell.

"This is an extremely rare event for this early in the season,'' meteorologist Tom Niziol told The Associated Press.

Emergency crews worked through the night to try and restore power, but the outages were expected to remain in place through the weekend for many residents.

"This is extremely heavy snow and most of the trees still have most of their leaves," Lt. James Watkins of the Buffalo Police Department told AP.

"We can't do a complete damage assessment until the snow stops falling.''

City police had received more than 3,000 calls by late Thursday. Two-thirds of the calls were weather-related and there was no sign of it ending any time soon, he said.

"There are power lines going down all over the place.''

With reports from CTV's John Musselman, Austin Delaney, and files from The Associated Press