A brutal winter storm brings danger and misery to millions of Americans on Christmas Day, as severe snow and frigid cold hit parts of the eastern United States, resulting in at least 32 weather-related deaths. climbed to
A crisis erupts in Buffalo, western New York, when a snowstorm leaves the city behind, preventing emergency services from reaching the worst-hit areas.
“It’s like going to a war zone, and the cars driving by the side of the road are shocking,” said Kathy Hochul, a New York state governor from Buffalo who is snowing with 2.4 meters of snow. The outage caused a life-threatening situation.
Ho-chol told reporters on Sunday night that residents were still suffering from a “very dangerous and life-threatening situation” and warned anyone in the area to stay indoors.
More than 200,000 people in several eastern states were awakened by power outages on Christmas morning, and many more had their vacation plans ruined.
Extreme weather pushed temperatures to below freezing in all 48 states of the continental United States over the weekend, causing vacationers to cancel thousands of flights and residents to be trapped in homes covered in ice and snow.
Nine states have confirmed 32 weather-related deaths, including at least 13 in Erie County, where Buffalo is located, and officials warn the number is sure to rise.
Officials described the historically dangerous conditions in the snowy Buffalo area. Hours of whiteout and corpses were found in vehicles and under banks of snow as paramedics struggled to find someone in need of rescue.
The city’s international airport remains closed until Tuesday, and a driving ban remains in place throughout Erie County.
“It will be talked about not only today, but for generations (like the blizzard of 2222),” Ho-chol said, adding that the atrocities were “in intensity, longevity, and persistence, like this one in 1977.” It surpassed the region’s previous landmark blizzard,” he added. The fury of the wind. ”
One of the frozen substations is buried under 18 feet of snow, a senior county official said, with some residents not expecting power to be restored until Tuesday as substations froze.
“It’s just bad conditions”
The National Weather Service said a blizzard of lake-induced snow continued into the West New York Great Lakes region on Sunday, with “another 2-3 feet of snow expected to continue tonight.”
A couple in Buffalo, across the Canadian border, told AFP on Saturday they would be less than a 10-minute drive to see their family on Christmas because the roads were completely impassable. .
Rebecca Boltrin, 40, said: “It’s hard because the situation is so bad…many fire departments don’t even send trucks out to make calls.
The broader travel nightmare has completely affected millions of people.
According to tracking website Flightaware.com, the storm, one of the deadliest in decades, canceled about 3,000 U.S. flights on Sunday, scrapped about 3,500 on Saturday, and killed about 3,500 on Friday. about 6,000 flights have been canceled.
Travelers remained stranded or delayed over Christmas at airports in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, New York, and elsewhere.
Frozen roads and whiteout conditions have temporarily closed some of the nation’s busiest transportation routes, including Interstate 70, which crosses the country.
Drivers had been warned not to take the roads – even as the country reached its busiest time of the year for travel.
Extreme weather has severely strained power grids, prompting millions of people to reduce their usage to minimize rolling blackouts in areas such as North Carolina and Tennessee. .
At some point Saturday, nearly 1.7 million customers lost power in the frigid weather, according to tracker poweroutage.us.
More than 48,000 customers in the Eastern Province were still without electricity, but that number had dropped significantly by Sunday evening.
Four people died and 53 were taken to hospital in British Columbia, Canada, after a bus overturned on Saturday. Two of them were in critical condition early on Sunday.
Hundreds of thousands of people were without power in Ontario and Quebec, many flights were canceled in major cities, and rail passenger service between Toronto and Ottawa was halted.
