As a severe storm dumps rain and snow throughout much of the US, at least 18 people die from exposure and traffic accidents.
At least 20 people have died as a result of exposure and car accidents on icy roads as a result of a powerful winter storm that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across the United States.
More than 3,000 US flights were canceled on Saturday as a result of the “bomb cyclone” storm, one of the most violent in recent memory, leaving hundreds of people stranded who were planning last-minute trips for Christmas.
The storm, which is currently in its third day straight, had a size that was almost unheard of, spanning from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande near the Mexican border. Some areas of the country, including Washington, DC, saw the coldest Christmas Eve on record as a result of the record-breaking low temperatures.
The increased demand for heat and transmission line damage brought about by storms put pressure on power infrastructure across the US.
As of Saturday night, at least 300,000 households and businesses lacked electricity, down significantly from 1.8 million consumers earlier in the day, according to tracking website Poweroutage.us.
At least 18 fatalities were linked to the storm around the US, including two who passed away in their homes outside Buffalo, New York, when rescue workers could not get to them due to historically severe blizzard conditions.
According to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, the snowstorm may be “the worst storm in our community’s history” and a third person has also died in Buffalo.
He added that there were “hundreds of people still stuck in their vehicles” and that it was taking ambulances more than three hours to make one journey to the hospital in regions where a vehicle could get through the snow.
He continued by saying that the National Guard would be dispatched “straight into Buffalo for these life-saving rescues.”
In the meantime, Buffalo’s practically all-stranded fire trucks, according to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, were caused by the snow. No matter how many emergency cars we have, they are currently unable to pass the situation.
A pileup involving about 50 automobiles on Friday in the state of Ohio claimed the lives of four additional persons as a result of the storm. On Thursday, a driver in Missouri lost his life after swerving into a creek, and on Wednesday, three more people lost their lives in separate accidents on ice roads in Kansas.
A lady in Vermont died in a hospital on Friday when a tree fell on her in severe winds, while a utility worker in Ohio was murdered on Friday while working to restore power. Police in Colorado discovered the body of a person who seemed to be homeless while the area experienced subzero temperatures and snowfall. An 82-year-old woman was discovered curled up in the snow outside of her assisted living complex in Michigan by a snowplow driver. Later, she was declared deceased.
Additionally, there were three fatalities in Kentucky, where Governor Andy Beshear issued the following advice to citizens on Saturday: “Stay home, stay safe, stay alive.”
“Because it’s Christmas Eve, I know it’s very difficult. But we’re experiencing a ton of accidents,” he added in a briefing posted online. It’s just not safe, period.
Terry Henderson and her husband, Rick, told The Associated Press news service that they spent 34 hours in a major traffic bottleneck along Interstate 71 in Kentucky as a result of numerous incidents. The truck drivers endured the wait in a vehicle equipped with a refrigerator, a bathroom, and a heater powered by diesel, but they later regretted attempting to drive from Alabama to their residence near Akron, Ohio, for Christmas.
After they started going again on Saturday, Terry Henderson commented, “I wish we had have remained.” We ought to have sat.
According to the flight tracking website FlightAware, 3,411 flights into, out of, or within the US were forced to be canceled on Saturday due to the extreme weather. While in Mexico, migrants and refugees tented close to the US border in extraordinarily cold weather while they awaited the US Supreme Court’s ruling on limits from the epidemic era that hinder them from applying for asylum.
One of the largest areas of winter weather alerts and advisories have ever been shown on a map depicting current or approaching meteorological dangers, according to the National Weather Service.
Latricia Stroud of hard-hit Buffalo claimed that she and her two girls, ages 1 and 12, had been stuck inside their home without heat or electricity since Friday afternoon because it is too snowy to leave.
Stroud told the AP, “I have to go over a snowbank to get out. I just need a ride to the warming center because there is one there.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES AND AL JAZEERA
