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Deadly winter storm takes over US, Canada on Christmas weekend: Top points
Bomb Cyclone: The deaths have been confirmed across eight states where heavy snow, howling winds and dangerously frigid temperatures kept much of the nation, including the normally temperate south, in a frozen grip for a third straight day.
At least 18 people were killed ahead of the holiday weekend as an icy winter storm swept across the United States and Canada, knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses and leaving millions on edge over the possibility of Christmas Eve blackouts. Blizzard winds caused by a ‘bomb cyclone’ – in which the barometric pressure drops and a cold air mass collides with warm air – led to a whiteout condition in New York, where emergency response efforts were paralysed and one of the international airports was shut down. More than 60 per cent of the US population reportedly faced some sort of winter advisory or warning, as temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service noted.
Here are the latest developments:
1) Eighteen deaths have been confirmed across eight states where heavy snow, howling winds and dangerously frigid temperatures kept much of the nation, including the normally temperate south, in a frozen grip for a third straight day. According to officials, the deaths have been attributed to exposure, car crashes, a falling tree limb and other effects of the storm.
2) At least three people died in New York's Buffalo area, including two who suffered medical emergencies in their homes and couldn’t reach emergency crews amid the historic Arctic blast. Meanwhile, on the Ohio Turnpike, four died in a pileup involving some 50 vehicles, while in Kansas City, Missouri, a driver was killed after skidding into a creek, and three others died in separate crashes on icy northern Kansas roads.
3) Residents in Buffalo, in among the worst-hit New York state, were scrambling with power outages to get out of their houses to anywhere that had heat. Forecasters said 28 inches (71 centimeters) of snow accumulated in the city as of last evening. New York Governor Kathy Hochul deployed the National Guard to Erie County and its main city Buffalo but almost every fire truck was stranded in the snow. She also said the Buffalo Niagara International Airport will be closed through Monday morning.
4) Americans who were traveling ahead of Christmas and New Years remained stuck as more than 2,360 flights – domestic or international – in or out of the US were canceled Saturday, according to the tracking site FlightAware. Holiday travel rush was expected to be close to pre-pandemic levels at the end of the year but the blizzard conditions made things uncertain. “Crews are using all available resources from across the state to clean-up and restore travel,” said South Dakota Department of Transportation, as quoted by AFP.
5) Power lines were knocked out from Maine to Seattle in the eastern US by the hurricane-like winds, freezing rain and frigid cold as a major electricity grid operator warned of rolling blackouts to the 65 million people it serves. More than 273,000 electric customers remained without power on the eve of Christmas, with Maine the hardest hit. Utilities said it could be days before electricity is restored. Authorities in Tennessee too directed local power companies to implement planned interruptions.
6) In Canada, hundreds of thousands were left without power in Ontario and Quebec provinces, while many flights were canceled at airports in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal due to the Arctic blast. In the central province of Saskatchewan, mercury plummeted as low as -50C. The rest of the country, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, was also under extreme cold and winter storm warnings.
(With agency inputs)
