nowhere near normal snow for buffalo, new york. reporter: west of buffalo, dozens of truckers hunkers down wednesday night, packing this rest area off interstate 90 to ride out the storm there. new york s governor closing more than 130 miles of the through way from rochester to the pennsylvania border to commercial traffic, including big rigs starting this afternoon. when they jackknife, as we saw in previous storms, they literally can paralyze our highways, stranding motorists for hours, if not days. reporter: that s what happened almost exactly eight years ago. in november of 2014, a lake effect system dumped more than five feet of snow on western new york. at least 13 people died. tonight, they are bracing for jet another potentially historic storm, one that will test this region that knows about powerful storms. no question about that. let s bring in matt rivers, live in new york just outside