I am a native of Erie, PA, a mere 90 miles down the Lake Erie coastline from Buffalo. It is not unusual for two feet of lake effect snow to fall overnight. You go to bed with no snow and wake up to a beautiful world of white, glad you are inside looking out rather than outside freezing in it. I've even driven a taxi through the night as the snow piled higher and deeper and I slipped down the street trying to get people where they needed to go.
The Jews have a saying: When leaving a good friend it is often said, "Hashanah Hashanei Byerushalem." (My transliteration may be a bit off. I haven't written or spoken in Hebrew in many years) It means "Next year in Jerusalem." Some of us for whom freeze claims can be our bread and butter some years sometimes say upon parting, "Next year in Buffalo."
I hate to disappoint the hopeful, but ... It is probably not likely that this storm will produce much work. The conditions are wrong for both frozen pipes and ice dam formation. Heavy snowfalls usually occur at about 32 degrees Fahrenheit. That this was the case with this one is indicated by the fact that it almost immediately started melting. Pipes generally have some insulation and do not freeze and burst until the temperature gets well below freezing. Ice dams require a period of time after a heavy snowfall when the temperature go down around zero or below, followed by a thaw.
If there is work to be had from this one, it is more likely to be from the winds that apparently were attendant upon this storm. There may also be an occasional large limb on a home.
Buffalo may have been taken by surprise by the earliness of the storm, but take my word for it that Buffalo knows how to recover quickly from a snowstorm.