One of these victims was Senator Roscoe Conkling, a New York Republican Party kingpin and aspirant for the U.S. presidency. He died as a result of “over exposure” from trying to walk from his Wall Street office to the New York Club on Madison Square.Refugees filled all the hotels. The venerable Astor Hotel set up 100 cots in its lobby when it became apparent by sunset that day that venturing outside was still impossible. The temperature had fallen to 8° by sunset, the wind was still howling and snowdrifts up to 20 feet filled the streets of the city.The blizzard was the first widely photographed natural disaster in U.S. history.