Five years ago right now, large portions of Western New York were in the middle of a historic lake effect snowstorm.

Others were simply watching the wall of snow that quickly piled up as high as 8 feet tall.

On November 18, 2014 we were seeing the worst of it.  Tens of thousands of people were trapped in their homes.

A wall of lake effect snow pummeled a 15 to 20 mile area, including South Buffalo, Hamburg, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Orchard Park and West Seneca.

The heaviest snow fell five years ago Monday, but more came down in the days to follow, totaling 5 to 8 feet.

Cars and trucks were stuck on the Thruway and other major roads. People had to be rescued by emergency personnel and good Samaritans.

But not everyone was rescued.

A total of 13 people died as a result of the storm.

Damage and cleanup cost more than $8 million.

It quickly earned a comparison to another infamous Western New York storm — the Blizzard of ‘77. 

It was clear in the northtowns but it quickly became clear people in the storm were experiencing something historic.

The November Storm went down as one of the largest ever American snow storms in a 24 hour period.