Dozens of NFL Fans Require Medical Treatment at Frigid Game, 15 Hospitalized
The spirit was willing, but the flesh was ch-ch-chilled.
That was the story for a number of fans who attended the fourth-coldest game in NFL history Saturday night to watch the Kansas City Chiefs delight their home fans with a 26-7 victory over the Miami Dolphins.
A byproduct of watching a football game in what the Associated Press said was a temperature of minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit with gusts of up to 27 mph, creating a wind chill of 27 degrees below zero, was that first responders dealt with a number of cases of hypothermia.
A Kansas City Fire Department representative said the department handled 69 calls at Arrowhead Stadium during the game, according to WDAF-TV.
About half of those calls were related to hypothermia.
Fifteen people were transported to a local hospital, with seven suffering from hypothermia and three from frostbite.
“We set up four field aid stations throughout the parking lot and … either someone flagged us down or we were sent by our operations to locate those individuals in their seats,” a fire department representative said, according to ABC.
In addition, Kansas University Health System had a first-aid station at the game.
The Chiefs move on to Buffalo for a Sunday night game with the Buffalo Bills.
Compared to Saturday the weather might seem balmy. AccuWeather reports that the weather at Buffalo’s Highmark Stadium features a projected high of 26 degrees, with a wind chill that will make it feel like 8 degrees.
Buffalo’s victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday was moved from Sunday due to heavy snow hitting the region. More snow is coming, but this time it should be done by game day.
The National Weather Service is predicting that some Erie County communities that received 2 feet of snow Sunday could get 2 to 3 feet in a storm arriving Wednesday, according to the Buffalo News.
The storm is expected to pack wind gusts of up to 40 mph.
“It won’t be the blizzardlike conditions, but this will be a lot of snow — a whole lot of snow is projected to hit us,” Department of Public Works, Parks and Streets Commissioner Nathan Marton said.
Andy Major, Bills vice president of operations and fan experience said safety was the priority in the frenzied efforts to clear High Mark Stadium for Monday’s game.
“We didn’t have enough time to get it all done with the timing of the snow and the amount of snow, but we hit all the critical areas and all the safety concerns,” he said.
“Unfortunately, comfort is a little bit at the bottom of the list when you’re talking about safety,” Major said.
“You want no seat snow in anywhere in that stadium, but you know if people had to sit in some snow or had to walk through some snow into their seats, then that’s kind of how we had to finish that day off to get that game open,” he said.
There has been no talk of moving Sunday’s game, but Bills officials are expected to reprise their request for snow shovelers to help clear the stadium before Sunday night’s game.
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